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Abraxas Treatment Facility
Shelby, Ohio
GEO
Jul
13, 2021 mansfieldnewsjournal.com
Sheriff's office: 3 Abraxas juvenile runaways remain at large
SHELBY
- Three juveniles who ran away from the Abraxas treatment facility on
Saturday are still at large, Capt. Donald Zehner of
the Richland County Sheriff's Office said Monday. At 2:15 p.m. Saturday, two
Columbus boys, ages 16 and 17, and another 16-year-old boy whose address is
listed as 2775 Ohio 39 NW - the Abraxas address - ran away from the facility,
according to the sheriff's report. Zehner said it
appears someone picked up the runaways in a vehicle outside the facility. In
response to a track record of numerous teens running away from the Abraxas
adolescent facility, Zehner told Jackson Township
trustees in May the facility had put back in place a notification system that
calls residents when a juvenile escapes from the residential treatment
center. Zehner said the system, called Group Cast
Solutions, was already up and running in May. More:Abraxas runaways led trooper on 22-mile
high-speed pursuit in stolen truck. In 2020, Richland County deputies
investigated 42 runaways from Abraxas. This year the sheriff's office has
been dispatched to the facility 25 times from Jan. 1 to May 7, according to
the sheriff's records office. In 2020, deputies responded to 75 calls at the
facility. Monica Hook, vice president, GEO Care strategic marketing, The GEO
Group Inc., parent company of Abraxas, said previously that "Abraxas
provides open residential treatment services to adolescent males and
outpatient treatment services to adolescents. We cannot confirm or deny
whether an individual has received services. Individuals receiving treatment
services are protected under federal law (42 CFR) and HIPAA." Friday,
two teen males ran away from the facility but were captured shortly after.
Jan
28, 2021 mansfieldnewsjournal.com
Two males, ages 17 and 20, run away from Abraxas
SHELBY
- A 17-year-old Marion teen who ran away from Abraxas Jan 28, 2021
mansfieldnewsjournal.com in November and was involved in the theft of a
pickup on Stiving Road has run away from the facility again. The teen and a
20-year-old Bellville man, who also was assigned to the residential treatment
facility, fled Tuesday and and remain missing as of Wednesday morning, Richland County Sheriff's
Office Capt. Donald Zehner said. The Marion teen's
prior escape occurred in November when he and three other teens ran away from
the treatment facility. Shelby police located two of them. In the November
incident, Ashland police located the other two boys, a 17-year-old Mansfield
youth and a (then) 16-year-old boy from Marion, on Center Street in Ashland.
The boys were found with a pickup stolen from a resident on Stiving Road. The
truck also had a firearm and ammunition inside it. The gun has not been
recovered, Zehner said earlier. No details were
released on the runaway general offense report Tuesday about how the two
males escaped Abraxas at 12:56 a.m. Wednesday, Zehner
said the Richland County Prosecutor's Office approved felony theft charges on
Nov. 6 for the Marion youth from Abraxas who is again missing. Wednesday,
Brian Bumpus, Richland County Juvenile Court
administrator, said two counts of grand theft motor vehicle were dismissed
against the Marion youth and two counts of receiving stolen property were
transferred to Marion Juvenile Court. He said the teen was brought to the Richand County Juvenile Attention Center Nov. 6 and
released on Nov. 10 back to Abraxas. In 2020, Richland County deputies
investigated 42 runaways from Abraxas, at 2775 Ohio 39. Wednesday, Monica
Hook, vice president, GEO Care strategic marketing, The GEO Group Inc.,
parent company of Abraxas, said, “Abraxas provides open residential treatment
services to adolescent males and outpatient treatment services to
adolescents. We cannot confirm or deny whether an individual has received
services. Individuals receiving treatment services are protected under
federal law (42 CFR) and HIPAA.” In November, Hook provided this statement:
“Abraxas provides open residential treatment services to adolescent males and
outpatient treatment services to adolescents and adults. Abraxas has been a
valued employer and service provider in Shelby, Ohio for more than 25 years.
Juvenile court systems and agencies throughout the state of Ohio refer
individuals to our programs that have co-occurring conditions such as
substance use and mental health disorders, family dysfunction, trauma and abuse histories. We utilize multiple evidence-
and competency-based curricula, and promote safety
and recovery through the active creation of a trauma-informed community.
"We cannot confirm or deny whether an individual has received services.
Individuals receiving treatment services are protected under federal law (42
CFR) and HIPAA,” Hook said. In a separate and unrelated runaway incident on Dec.
5, two other teens from Abraxas ran away at 10:36 p.m. and stole a 2013
garbage truck from the nearby parking lot of Rumpke at 2175 Stiving Road.
Dec
8, 2020 mansfieldnewsjournal.com
Two
teens flee Abraxas, may have stolen garbage truck
MANSFIELD
- Two teens from Abraxas treatment facility who ran away at 10:36 p.m.
Saturday from the 2775 Ohio 39 W. facility, were located sometime Sunday
night or early Monday morning in Licking County, according to the Richland
County Sheriff's Office. Capt. Donald Zehner said
it is not yet known if the teens may have been involved in the theft of a
2013 garbage truck from the nearby parking lot
of Rumpke Waste & Recycling at 2175 Stiving Road at 4:30 p.m. Sunday. Gayane Makaryan, corporate
communications manager at Rumpke, said the smaller garbage truck used for
residential customers, was behind a locked gate and fence and the suspects
drove the vehicle through the locked gate. "We're thankful for our local
law enforcement and the (highway) patrol that got our vehicle back," she
said. The truck, valued at $60,000, was recovered in Licking County in the
median of U.S. 70, according to the Sheriff's Office report. Thee teens were located elsewhere in Licking County and
were not with the garbage truck, Zehner said. Two suspects
are listed on the on the Sheriff's Office's incident report suspect list, a
16-year-old boy from Cambridge and a 14-year-old boy from Chillicothe. So far
this year Richland County deputies have investigated 42 runaways from
Abraxas, including the two teens who fled the facility Saturday night. Monica
Hook, vice president, GEO Care strategic marketing, The GEO Group Inc.,
parent company of Abraxas, could not be reached for comment.
Nov
7, 2020 mansfieldnewsjournal.com
Teen
charged with murder in Columbus shooting was housed at Abraxas
Residents
often run away from Mansfield-area treatment center
SHELBY
- A teen arrested on murder charges in the shooting death of a man outside a
Columbus gun show was housed temporarily at Abraxas Ohio, a Mansfield-area
teen treatment facility from which residents frequently run away. Javonte
Williams, 17, is accused of fatally shooting a 21-year-old man on Sept. 20 in
the parking lot of the former Westland Mall in Columbus, according to the
Franklin County Sheriff's Office. He was at the Abraxas facility, a former
seminary on 2775 Ohio 39, until Franklin County deputies took him into
custody on an arrest warrant Oct. 27 and transported him to the Richland
County Detention Center, according to a Richland County Sheriff’s Office
report. Williams stayed at the detention center for a little over 24 hours,
according to court administrator Brian Bumpus, who
confirmed the teen had been committed at Abraxas. So far this year Richland
County deputies have investigated 40 runaways from Abraxas, including four
teens who fled the facility at Wednesday night. Abraxas is dealing with
COVID-19 cases among its residents and staff, a company official said
Thursday. Two of the four teens who ran away Wednesday were located by
deputies and taken back to the facility the same night. Friday, Ashland
police located the other two boys, a 17-year-old Mansfield youth and a
16-year-old boy from Marion, on Center Street in Ashland. The boys were found
with a pickup stolen from a resident on Stiving Road, Richland County
Sheriff's Capt. Donald Zehner said Friday
afternoon. The teens will be taken to the Richland County Detention Center, Zehner said. Authorities have investigated 40 runaways
this year at Abraxas Ohio, a former seminary on 2775 Ohio 39
that now serves as a teen residential treatment center. A 17-year-old
murder suspect was housed there temporarily in October. Richland County
deputies assisted the Franklin County deputies when Williams was taken into
custody and transported to the Richland County Detention Center without
incident, according to the RCSO report. Williams is charged with a
delinquency count of aggravated murder, accused of killing 21-year-old Sage
Martin outside the former mall, near the intersection of U.S. Route 40 and Interstate
270 on Columbus’ West Side, according to The Dispatch, which reported the
teen's arrest on Oct. 29. Monica Hook, vice president of strategic marketing
for The GEO Group, Inc., Abraxas' parent company, said in an email statement
Thursday that “Abraxas provides open residential treatment services to
adolescent males and outpatient treatment services to adolescents and adults.
Abraxas has been a valued employer and service provider in Shelby, Ohio, for
more than 25 years. Juvenile court systems and agencies throughout the state
of Ohio refer individuals to our programs that have co-occurring conditions
such as substance use and mental health disorders, family dysfunction, trauma and abuse histories. We utilize multiple evidence-
and competency-based curricula, and promote safety
and recovery through the active creation of a trauma-informed
community." Hook said, "We cannot confirm or deny whether an
individual has received services. Individuals receiving treatment services
are protected under federal law (42 CFR) and HIPAA.” Hook did not respond to
specific questions from the News Journal including whether Abraxas is a
secure facility.
Nov 6, 2020 mansfieldnewsjournal.com
Two of four runaways from Abraxas still at large
SHELBY - Authorities are still searching for two of four teenage boys who
ran away from Abraxas treatment facility at 2775 Ohio 39 North on Wednesday
night. Two of the four boys, who are from Cincinnati, ages 14 and 17, were
located by Shelby Police Department and returned to the facility Wednesday
night. A 17-year-old Mansfield youth and a 16-year-old boy from Marion remain
at large, Richland County Sheriff's Capt. Donald Zehner
said Thursday morning. All four males were wearing gray Abraxas uniforms when
they fled the facility at 8:27 p.m., according to the report. The runaway
Mansfield teen was described as being 6-foot, 2
inches tall and weighing 220 pounds. He has brown hair and hazel eyes,
according to the report. The Marion teen, 16, was described as 5 foot, 11
inches tall and weighing 158 pounds. He has black hair and brown eyes,
according to the report. This year to date, the sheriff's office has
investigated 40 runaways from the facility. There were 17 incident reports,
with multiple juveniles running away together, according to the sheriff's
office. An hour and a half after the teens' escape was reported, a
43-year-old man who resides in the 2700 block of Stiving Road reported his
2015 white Ford pickup stolen from his property. The truck, which had a snow plow hitch, contained a .22-caliber handgun, a red
toolbox, tools, a Stihl leaf blower, according to a sheriff's office report. Zehner said deputies cannot connect the theft of the
vehicle to the runaways. Abraxas Ohio provides residential treatment services
to adolescent males and outpatient treatment services to adolescents and
adults. The facility has been serving youth and families for 25 years through
partnerships with juvenile court systems and child care
agencies throughout Ohio. The company has been expanding its service offerings
as the needs of adolescents and their families have increased in complexity,
Monica Hook, vice president of The GEO Group Inc., Abraxas' parent company,
told the News Journal in May. Many clients referred to the programs have
co-occurring conditions such as substance use and mental health disorders,
family dysfunction, trauma and abuse histories,
according to the Abraxas website. The facility had been a seminary before it
became the Abraxas treatment center.
Mar 17, 2017 wkyc.com
Investigator | Two courts now investigating claims against NE Ohio drug
center
At least two Ohio juvenile courts are now investigating whether to
continue sending teens to a drug treatment facility in the wake of an
exclusive WKYC Channel 3 News investigation. Another county spokesman told
The Investigator Tom Meyer that they stopped sending teens to the facility –
Abraxas Ohio in Shelby - years ago because of abuse allegations. A team from
Cuyahoga County Juvenile court visited Abraxas on Thursday. A spokeswoman
said the team intended to interview four Cleveland-area boys currently housed
at Abraxas. The team also planned to tour the facility. The court sent the
team to the facility a day after a WKYC Channel 3 News report that focused on
former Abraxas employees and clients, all of whom made allegations of
physical abuse, sexual encounters with staff and little to no drug
counseling. Abraxas Ohio is owned by the GEO Group, one of the nation’s
largest private prison companies. They have denied any wrongdoing. A
spokesman did not immediately respond for comment about Thursday’s
development. “When the Court learned of the allegations today, we immediately
dispatched a team to the facility to interview the four youths placed there
from our Court and to inspect the facility.
If we find the allegations have any merit the Court will take
immediate action which could include relocating our youth to another
facility,” spokeswoman Mary Davidson said in an email. She declined to elaborate
on the investigation. “We will share results when available,” she said. Orvel Johns, a spokesman for the Franklin County Juvenile
Court, said on Thursday that the judges have ordered their own investigation
of Abraxas. The move came after the court was made aware of the WKYC Channel
3 News report. “We are conducting our own review and investigation of the
allegations and are likely to suspend referrals until we conclude that
inquiry,” Johns said. Abraxas houses about 100 teenaged boys with addiction
issues. The teens are primarily poor and Abraxas is paid through tax dollars.
Ohio Medicaid paid more than $9 million last year. Summit County currently
has five teens housed at Abraxas, Don Ursetti, a
court spokesman, said Thursday. Ursetti
would not say if the court intends to investigate the facility as courts in
Cuyahoga and Franklin counties have done. Rather, he said, Summit County
juvenile court will "monitor" the developments and take action, if
appropriate. Courts in Lake and Stark county stopped sending teens to Abraxas
more than three years ago. A Stark County spokesman said a variety of reasons
contributed to the decision, but abuse was not cited. Lake County Juvenile
Court Judge Karen Lawson said Thursday that cuts in state funding caused her
to seek other treatment options more than five years ago. She was not aware
of any abuses.In Geauga County, however, the
director of the county Jobs and Family Services said they stopped sending
kids to Abraxas a few years ago after learning of complaints regarding
excessive restraints and physical abuse.Ohio: Two
courts concerned over GEO abuse allegations of restraints and physical abuse.
Mar 15, 2017 wkyc.com
Investigator | Physical abuse, sex alleged at NE Ohio
drug center for teens
Lynne Komar thought her son
would get help when he was sent to a drug treatment center outside of
Mansfield. “Connor came out worse,” the Parma mother said. She said her son,
Connor, 17, received very little counseling for his marijuana use. Instead, she
alleges, the teen was physically abused by staff at Abraxas Ohio, a center
owned by the GEO Group, one of the largest private prison companies in the
U.S. “Connor got shoved a lot at Abraxas, he got pushed into walls…they
restrained him with whatever restraints they had on four different
occasions,” she said. “They tackled him, punched him...made him stay in his
room for three days straight. “To see your son being at a place where he is
supposed to get help and here he’s getting abused, it’s heartbreaking.”
Former counselors and staff at Abraxas have come forward since WKYC Channel 3
News first reported allegations of misconduct earlier this month. The former
employees allege Abraxas does little drug counseling, however, some staff
manipulate progress reports and notes to collect millions of dollars in
Medicaid payments. "I've been saying for years they're not doing
treatment. They have people out there who will just watch cameras all day and
delete footage," said Tim Batdorf, a former
counselor at Abraxas Ohio. Several former workers contend that physical
restraints are “commonplace” and often done in so-called “boom-boom rooms”
outside the range of security cameras. On occasion, boys were grabbed, lifted
and dropped onto the floor. “Restraints were pretty much a daily basis,” said
Batdorf. “The attitude of getting in a kid’s face –
that was commonplace out there…[Staff] purposely instigated fights with these
kids.” Abraxas houses about 100 teenaged boys, most sent from juvenile courts
throughout Ohio and neighboring states. Many of the teens come from poor
families and Medicaid pays for their counseling and treatment that often
lasts three to six months. A GEO Group spokesman denied any wrongdoing. They
are currently embroiled in a whistleblower lawsuit filed by a former Abraxas
employee. “These allegations do a disservice to the many dedicated employees
who work hard every day to provide services for at-risk youth. Our youth
programs adhere to strict standards set by state agencies and are frequently
monitored to ensure that we meet state regulations,” said Pablo Paez, vice president of corporate relations.
“Additionally, our youth programs are accredited by The Joint Commission – an
independent organization that accredits and certifies nearly 21,000 health
care organizations and programs in the U.S." Another former Abraxas
worker, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said he’s
aware of six co-workers who left the facility after engaging in sexual
conduct with residents. “It took place out in the parking lot, took place
outside, took place in offices,” he said. “Staff knows where the cameras
are.” He agreed that little counseling was taking place and that the use of
restraints and physical confrontations – oftentimes in violation of policy -
were rampant. “It was overboard at times,” he said. He said he’s aware that
some documents were altered to conform to government regulations. “They say
they don’t falsify reports. Well I have reports that say different,” he said.
“Taxpayers are getting ripped off. It’s all about money to them. All about
how much they can make.”
Mar 1, 2017 wkyc.com
Whistleblower: Millions wasted at NE Ohio rehab center for teens
SHELBY - One of the nation’s largest private prison companies is
defending itself against Medicaid fraud charges filed by a former clinical
supervisor at an Ohio residential treatment center for teens. Lynn Roycroft’s federal lawsuit alleges Abraxas Ohio in
Shelby, an all-male, treatment center owned by GEO Group Inc., billed the
government for years on "false or fraudulent" claims, including
counseling sessions never happened.“I would say it
was a pretty egregious abuse of your tax dollars,” Roycroft
told WKYC Channel 3 News. “Because treatment did not happen for the most
part.” According to state Medicaid officials, Abraxas received more than $9
million in payments in 2016 and more than $33 million since 2012. Roycroft, who has spent 33 years in counseling, alleges
the federal government was billed by Abraxas for group counseling sessions
that were never held. She also alleges progress reports were “cut and pasted”
from one resident to another. She also contends men and women who once worked
blue collar jobs such as plumbers and roofers were hired by Abraxas, given a
week of training and then acted as professional counselors for the 100 boys
who were housed at the residential facility in Richland County. Abraxas, she
said, misrepresented the credentials and qualifications of some counselors.
The teens treated at Abraxas were generally sent to the facility to obtain
counseling and treatment after having cases heard in juvenile courts across
Ohio, including Cuyahoga and Summit counties. Aside from financial and
billing irregularities, Roycroft says the teenage
boys were often improperly restrained and that “counselors” spent more time
“controlling behaviors” instead of providing counseling for drug and alcohol
abuse. “The philosophy of the institution was to get as many kids in there as
you could and bill [Medicaid] your three hours of group [counseling] a day,
whether the groups happened or not,” Roycroft said.
“To me, it’s just blatant fraud.” Pablo Paez, a GEO
Group spokesman, said Roycroft’s lawsuit “has no
merit” and that the company will defend it “vigorously.” He declined further
comment. Abraxas Ohio’s director is Erich Dumbeck,
who once headed the Huron County Department of Jobs and Family Services. In
2007, Dumbeck resigned in the wake of world-wide
attention focusing his agency and a couple who kept their foster children in
crudely built cages. Dumbeck declined comment. Lavonte Hinchen of Cleveland
was twice sent to Abraxas for three-month stints in 2008 and 2009. He called
the programming “a joke” and said teens were not provided counseling. “A lot
of the friends I made there…you can look it up, they’re having problems today
out on the streets,” said Hinchen. “They don’t know
how to handle their problems day to day. “A lot of people’s tax dollars went
in, but nothing came out of it.” That’s largely due to the lack of counseling
and proper training of staff, Roycroft said. When
she was hired in 2008, Roycroft said she was
expected to address myriad problems inside the expansive residential center
near Mansfield. Some group sessions never met, however, reports were filled
out as if they did occur, she said. Those forms were then submitted to
Medicaid for billing purposes. “It was totally out of control when I got
there,” she said. “A lot of the time, I was really just spending trying to
wrap my head around what I was being told.” The lawsuit, filed in U.S.
District Court, is pending. Roycroft is seeking unspecified
damages. She and her attorney say taxpayers were defrauded, but the children
and their families continue to suffer because they never received the help
needed to overcome addictions or other mental health issues. “This is fraud,”
said attorney Warner Mendenhall of Akron. “This is very abusive. The worst
type of abuse because it’s victimizing the most vulnerable people in our
society.”
August 4, 2010 Mansfield News Journal
A judge modified bond Tuesday for a former youth counselor at a Shelby residential
treatment center who is accused of raping a 16-year-old girl. Randy Scott,
35, of Mifflin Township, had been held on a $500,000 cash bond after his May
arrest. Last week, Richland County Common Pleas Judge James Henson granted a
defense request to reduce the bond to $10,000 with 10 percent posting
allowed. The state objected and requested Tuesday's hearing. Following
testimony from two witnesses, Henson rescinded the previous bond. The new
terms are $100,000 with 10 percent posting. If Scott posts bond, he will be
monitored electronically and cannot have contact with the alleged victim.
Scott is charged with four counts of rape, four counts of sexual battery,
four counts of gross sexual imposition and one count of kidnapping with a
sexual motivation specification. The alleged victim was not a resident at
Abraxas, a residential program for males ages 12 to 18. Assistant Prosecutor
Bambi Couch-Page wanted Henson to reconsider his previous decision to reduce
Scott's bond. "The defendant cannot control himself sexually around
minors," she said. Couch-Page called sheriff's deputy Pat Smith as a
witness. Smith said there are two pending investigations against Scott. The
more recent case involved alleged sexual conduct between Scott and a
16-year-old Abraxas boy. Scott has been fired, said Charles Seigel, a vice
president for Cornell Companies, which operates Abraxas. The older case
involved Scott's alleged sexual conduct with three females -- ages 13, 14 and
18 -- while he worked at Foundations for Living, a residential treatment
facility on Ohio 39 South.
May 11, 2010 Mansfield News Journal
A youth counselor at a Shelby residential treatment center was arrested and
charged with the rape of a 16-year-old, officials said Monday. Randy Lamont
Scott, 35, of Mifflin Township, is incarcerated at the Richland County Jail
on $500,000 bond after pleading not guilty Friday morning to a single count
of rape, a first-degree felony. A spokesman for Abraxas, the Shelby youth
rehab center where Scott worked, said he was placed on nonadministrative,
unpaid leave last week. The child, who is not part of the Abraxas program,
has received a medical exam and counseling, according to Carl Hunnell, a Children Services spokesman. "We were
notified on May 5, at 5:34 p.m., on the allegations," Hunnell said. "We're working with the sheriff's
department on the investigation of the victim due to the age." Richland
County Sheriff's Deputy Pat Smith declined to say much about Scott, citing
the ongoing investigation, but alluded to a "period of abuse."
Scott was a "life skills worker" at Abraxas and was responsible for
leading group sessions and supervising group activities on weekends, said
Charles Seigel, a vice president for Cornell Companies, which operates
Abraxas. Scott had worked at the facility for less than two years and passed
a background check and drug tests, which Seigel said were routine for
incoming employees. While he has not been fired, Seigel said the company
likely wouldn't wait for the legal case to be resolved. "Anything that
would be a felony would be pretty much automatic," Seigel said.
"We'll take a look at the situation." The Shelby facility's 108-bed
residential program, "incorporates an intensive group curriculum
focusing on decision-making, goal-setting, self-esteem, sex education and
relapse process/prevention," according to the company's website.
Annashae Corp
Ohio
August 26, 2003
A contractor who provides physicians work in Ohio prisons says the state's
progressively lower spending limits are causing the company to hire doctors
with less training, a newspaper and television station reported. The
prison system has reduced medical costs by using contract caps to gradually
pay less to the companies providing the doctors who work in prison
clinics. A Cleveland company that provides contract services, Annashae Corp., said the reduced payments limit the
quality of doctors it can hire to care for inmates, the Columbus Dispatch and
WBNS-TV reported Monday in the second installment of a two-part series on
medical care in Ohio's prisons. ``If you're offering less than a doctor
could make at a private clinic or emergency room, how are you going to sell
that physician on working with maximum-security or medium-security inmates in
a remote area of Ohio?'' said Christopher Pasiadis,
Annashae's chief operating officer.
(Ohio.com)
Cincinnati Pension Board
Aug 31, 2017 fox19.com
Cincinnati Pension Board working to divest private prison industry
holdings worth $2.5M
A Cincinnati councilman says the city is taking steps to divest its pension
fund from the private prison industry. Councilman P.G. Sittenfeld's office
uncovered pension fund holdings that include indirect exposure to private
prison companies CoreCivic and GEO Group, and
direct exposure to G4S, to the tune of 598,137 shares worth $2,535,964.99.
Sittenfeld was joined Wednesday on the front steps of Cincinnati City Hall by
the ACLU of Ohio; the Ohio Justice & Policy Center; the Cincinnati NAACP;
the Cincinnati Chapter of the National Action Network; former Ohio Governor Ted
Strickland; Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley; fellow
Cincinnati Councilmembers; the Ohio Civil Services Employees Association; the
AMOS Project; and community members and criminal justice reform advocates.
Sittenfeld’s policy directive, supported by a majority of council and the
mayor, calls for the City Pension Board, which council helps to appoint and
oversee, to report back with a divestment plan in 45 days. “If you a want
glimpse into a person or a city’s values, then follow the money,” Sittenfeld
said. “And the money that flows into the private prison business is a stain
on our community. We should not and we will not use public funds to prop up
this immoral enterprise.” The Cincinnati action mirrors legislation passed
earlier this year by New York City, which liquidated $48 million worth of
stock it had tied up in private prisons. The City of Cincinnati is the only
city in Ohio with its own pension system. The U.S. spends $80 billion on
incarceration each year. WHEREAS the Cincinnati City Council has deep concerns
about the use of private prisons in the United States, including creating a
profit incentive for incarceration; endangering prison staff, inmates and the
public; exacerbating the country's mass incarceration problem and related
racial disparities; and representing an expensive and less effective use of
taxpayer funds; WHEREAS recently the New York City pension fund voted to
divest from private prisons, and Cincinnati wishes to do the same; and to
call on other cities and states to maximize the power of divestment by also
withdrawing funds from the private industry; WE MOVE that it is the desire of
the policy making body of the City of Cincinnati that the Pension Board, to
the fullest extent possible and consistent with fiduciary obligations, divest
from and set a policy moving forward to not invest in companies that derive
at least 20% of their revenue from private prisons, including the following
specific companies: GEO Group, G4S and CoreCivic;
WE MOVE that CRS report back to Council within 45 days with a plan for
enacting this policy directive.
Columbiana County Jail
Leetonia, Ohio
Community Education Centers (bought CiviGenics)
Jun
19, 2019 morningjournalnews.com
Two
back in custody
LISBON
–The two escapees from the Columbiana County Jail didn’t get very far, with
both arrested Tuesday in the same towns where they live. Anthony R. Wagoner,
38, of 741 Cadmus St., East Liverpool, was taken into custody about 8:15 a.m.
at a home at 726 Cadmus St., while Michael W. Hover Jr, 28, Third Street,
Salem, was found about 12:30 p.m. at a home on Olive Street, Salem, about
12:30 p.m.. Wagoner and Hover, along with Michael Conzett,
escaped from the minimum-security wing of the county at 11:30 p.m. Sunday by
breaking a window in the shower area and tearing out the metal cover. Once
outside, they used a device to cut through the security fence and crawl out.
Hover and Wagoner ran down the hill to County Home Road and left in a passing
vehicle. Conzett apparently changed his mind and
returned to the jail. East Liverpool Police Chief John Lane said his
department received a tip early Tuesday morning Wagoner was at the Cadmus
Street home and that he was making threats and might have a gun. Lane and his
officers, with help from the Liverpool and St. Clair townships’ police
departments and sheriff’s deputies, arrived about 6:45 a.m. to take up
positions around the house. A woman and man left the house on their own,
leaving only Wagoner inside. Lane went to the front door and told Wagoner to
surrender or they were going to send in the St. Clair Township’s police dog,
Axel. After the third warning, Axel was sent in. Wagoner ran out the back
door and was chased for two blocks before being captured. In the process he
was shot twice with stun guns. No firearm was found. Like East Liverpool,
Salem police received a tip at 12:20 p.m. that Hover was at the Olive Street
address. Police surrounded the house and approached the back door, which was
open. They could see Hover sitting on a chair in the kitchen and he
surrendered without incident. “He was soaking wet and scratched up. It looked
like he had a really long night,,” Salem Police
Chief J.T. Panezott of Hover. Police are
investigating whether Hover was involved in the theft of a vehicle early
Tuesday morning. Police received a tip about Hover at 3:27 a.m. and were on the their way to Fair Avenue when they came across a
stolen vehicle fleeing east on Pershing Street. Police ended the pursuit when
the vehicle began speeding through business parking lots. The vehicle later
crashed on U.S. Route 62 at the border of Perry and Goshen townships. The
driver fled on foot and efforts to locate the person using the police dog
were unsuccessful. Wagoner, Hover and Conzett are
all facing possible felony escape charges. Stone said the jail staff
conducted a further search of the facility and found diagonal cutting pliers
in one of the inmate rooms, along with tobacco. All jail tools were accounted
for, leading the sheriff to conclude the cutting pliers were somehow smuggled
into the facility. “My assumption is they were left outside the fence (for
the inmates to retrieve) and they brought them back inside, maybe to use
later,” he said. Stone pointed out the misdemeanor wing, which houses
non-violent low level offenders, once served as a
county nursing home before its conversion in the 1990s, making it less than
an ideal facility to incarcerate inmates. “This was never built to be a jail
… They’ve had issues there as long as I’ve been here,” he said. The last
escape at the county jail occurred in August 2008 and in the maximum security wing, when four inmates made their way to
the roof and jumped off. The jail is currently run by GEO Group, a private
company hired by county commissioners. A new company, Correctional Solutions
Group, is scheduled to take over operations July 1.
Jun 16, 2018 .salemnews.net
Jail operation problems become alarming
(Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part story examining issues
at the Columbiana County Jail.)
LISBON –At least as big an issue as cost is whether Columbiana County should
resume operating the jail because of problems at the facility. Most of the
problems appear to be with jail operations, and staff turnover at the jail
has been a contributing factor in recent years due to low starting pay,
resulting in the jail being understaffed. County Prosecutor Robert Herron
said you cannot expect to attract qualified applicants to be a corrections
officer for what GEO pays. “That shouldn’t be news to anyone, but someone
starting off being paid $10 an hour is not going to be able to control a
gangbanger,” he said. “It just isn’t going to happen.” Starting pay until
recently was $10.91 but has since been raised to $14. Herron said there is no
question the situation at the county jail has worsened in recent years to the
point where he is alarmed. “When CiviGenics came in
we didn’t have the … concerns we have now,” he said. “I think the problem is
management and operations have deteriorated significantly, (as well as) the
type of inmates they are expected to control.” CiviGenics
is the company that ran the jail from 1998 until 2007, when the company was
purchased by Community Education Centers. GEO took over jail operations in
early 2017 after acquiring CEC. Between the fall of 2015 and November 2017
the jail went through six wardens. “I think that’s a direct reflection of
what we’re talking about,” Herron said. During the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Corrections 2017 inspection of the facility, it found the
jail met 220 of the 231 jail standards. The jail was non-compliant with
minimum staffing standards, and it was not properly able to house inmates at
times due to overcrowding, resulting in violent and non-violent offenders
being housed in the same cell and same unsupervised areas. The jail was also
cited for failing to follow its own policies requiring periodic personal
inmate inspections and those inspections be documented, reinforce staffing
policies and procedures, and conduct fire drills every three months. As
Herron mentioned above, part of the problem at the jail is the general
character of the average inmate has changed. He said they are seeing more and
more inmates with long criminal records who have served multiple stints in
prison. Increased drug trafficking in the county has brought gang members from
large cities, such as Cleveland, and how they conduct themselves in jail has
rubbed off on local inmates. “They have no respect for anything and are much
more violent … You have someone who doesn’t give a damn about themselves or
anyone else,” Herron said. “The type of inmates we deal with today are
different than the inmates we dealt with 15-20 years ago.” When combined with
inexperienced and insufficiently trained corrections officers, “you have a
real dangerous situation,” he said. Over the past year, county Common Pleas
Court Judge C. Ashley Pike has begun questioning inmates and corrections
officers about jail operations when they appear before him in court. Pike
said he was originally in favor of privatizing the jail but now he is not so
sure. “I thought it was an interesting and innovative approach … I certainly
thought it was worth a try,” he said. “But in recent years my perception is …
that the concept is not working well, and I have to say, as some lawyers have
said, if it’s such a good idea, why aren’t the other 87 counties (in Ohio)
following?” Pike said. His chief concern is the jail appears to be
understaffed and poorly run to the point where the safety of inmates and
corrections officers are in jeopardy. “The fact we may have saved lots of money
over the years is good. But that is of little comfort to somebody who loses a
loved one out there, whether it be an inmate, a corrections officer or
probation officers who have a legitimate reason to be out there,” Pike said.
As a judge responsible for sentencing criminals to jail, Pike believes he has
a duty to stay informed about the safety of the facility, which is why he has
been asking questions. “I think the public needs to know and I think I need
to know,” he said, adding at least two recent grand juries have expressed
similar concerns. “All I’m trying to do is verify information from
everybody’s perspective.” County Sheriff Ray Stone was asked for his thoughts
about how the jail is being operated. “There is no problem with the jail.
Didn’t you read the stories?” he said, referring to stories about officials
saying some of the reported problems are overstated. By law, the sheriff is
responsible for jail operations. While Stone said he is concerned about the
safety of the corrections officers, inmates and his staff, he said the jail
is the responsibility of county commissioners. “My name is nowhere on the
contract. All I can do is continue to do what we can, which is tell our
problems to the warden, and lately he has been addressing them,” Stone said. The
sheriff said he will continue to have his deputies walk through the jail to
check on conditions whenever they have the time. These impromptu inspections
are turned into reports included with the regular sheriff’s reports made
available to the news media, resulting in stories about problems at the jail.
Pike believes the county needs to at least consider looking into taking the
jail back. “It just appears to me the matter needs to be revisited. If it’s
working in some respects, fine, and if isn’t working we need to be willing to
admit it,” he said. County Commissioner Mike Halleck believes the problems
can be fixed and Warden Mike Curley, hired in August, is the right man for
the job. On May 23, Halleck unveiled a plan aimed at addressing many of the
problems, including hosting weekly meetings with Stone and Curley to improve
communications and resolve problems. A new camera system and body scanner are
being added, and GEO has begun paying its workers a better wage and providing
more training. Herron has said he is also confident the problems with be
addressed based on what he heard during a recent meeting with Halleck, Curley
and a GEO official. Halleck said many of the incidents that have garnered
media attention in recent months — assaults, smuggled contraband and inmates
jimmying the locks– are the types of things that occur in every jail. He
concedes staffing and training issues have likely contributed to the
frequency of those problems and others, however. “I’m not going to defend
what has occurred out there, but people need to be reminded this is a jail.
So when you have 150-some bad people altogether in one place, bad things are
going to happen,” he said. Curley issued a statement saying GEO is working to
address the problems, some of which, such as staffing, are common at jails.
“While operational reviews and assessments are ongoing, GEO has implemented
measures to remedy the recent operational challenges in conjunction with the
county commissioners’ office, as well as the county sheriff. This includes
weekly meetings with the county commissioner and sheriff and the development
of corrective action plans to address any issues,” he said. “Furthermore, GEO
has taken steps to recruit additional staff at the Columbiana County Jail,
such as raising the starting pay rate for correctional officers and support
staff, as well as implementing additional post-specific training in
conjunction with in-process, in-service training. This includes assigning
several temporary duty staff positions to the facility,” Curley concluded.
Sep 3, 2017
morningjournalnews.com
Report critical of county jail
LISBON –A recent Columbiana County grand jury report on county jail
operations was unusual in its criticism. Issued by the July grand jury
following a tour of the jail, the grand jurors expressed concerns about
staffing, staff security as it relates to “control panels,” meal tables that
were dirty, grass appeared unmowed, the building
that houses minimum-security inmates appearing “worn out,” an ice bin was
rusty, and that some inmates were sleeping on plastic floor cots referred to
as “boats.” State law requires county jails be inspected by grand jurors a
minimum of four times per year and their findings be included in the grand
jury report, which is written by the county prosecutor’s office. The grand
jurors are required to inquire “into the discipline and treatment of the
prisoners, and their habits, diet and accommodations.” Just two months
before, the May grand jury found nothing wrong with the jail. “We find and
respectfully report to the court, that the rules prescribed by the court have
been faithfully kept and observed, and we do not find that any provisions of
law for the regulations of county jails have been violated,” they wrote. This
is a standard reply following every inspection, and the newspaper cannot
recall the last time there was any other response from the grand jury. There
was no inspection in August. Someone from the county prosecutor’s office
accompanies the grand jurors on their inspection, but county Sheriff Ray
Stone said his department was asked by Prosecutor Robert Herron to have a
deputy accompany them on the July inspection. Stone said he decided to go
along too. Herron could not be reached for comment, but Stone and County
Commissioner Mike Halleck were asked about the criticisms. The following are
there responses to the issues raised by the grand jury: “We agree (that is a
problem), but that’s a work in progress,” Halleck said, adding of the 15
staffing vacancies at the jail, 14 have been filled by the GEO Group.
Commissioners contracted with Community Education Centers to operate the
jail, but GEO purchased the company earlier this year. Stone, who by law has
direct responsibility over the jail, said it is his understanding staffing
turnover has always been an issue. Halleck believes they must be referring to
the main control panel room, and directly across from it in full view are
three rooms with windows where inmates can meet with their attorneys. This
allows the corrections officers to keep an eye on the inmates and attorneys.
It is Halleck’s understanding one of the public defenders became
uncomfortable while meeting with an inmate/client in the room furthest from
control panel door. To address the concern, future attorney/inmates meetings
will be in the room closest to the control panel door. Stone said he thought
the grand jury was referring to the control panel room for one of the cell
areas, which is left unmanned when the corrections officer assigned to the
control panel leaves when making the rounds. He said the control panel is
automatically disabled when the supervisor makes the rounds, and it can only
be restored by someone at the main control panel. Stone said there is always
someone in the control panel overseeing the other cell areas, including the
area where the high-security inmates — sex and violent offenders — are
housed. The main control panel room that oversees all operations is also
staffed around the clock. “That’s laughable. They just spent $10,000
repainting it,” Halleck said of GEO. The facility once served as a nursing
home for the poor operated by the county. Stone did not think much of that
criticism either. “What can you say about that? It was built in the 1960s or
’70s,” he said. Stone said these plastic floor cots are used when
overcrowding occurs. “They’ve done this forever, and all jails do it,” he
said. Halleck said overcrowding is rarely a problem and it is his
understanding the boats, which he described as resembling a mini-SEAL raft,
are increasingly being used for inmates who come in “dope sick” from drugs.
He said these inmates are placed in these boats to protect them while they
thrash about, and they are easier to clean up afterwards should they become
sick. As for the mowing, this reporter was at the jail in early July and saw
inmates cutting grass. Stone said the inmates are always mowing, but
participation is strictly voluntarily and sometimes they do not have enough
willing to mow on a particular day. He said the grand jury may have been
there on an off day. “It’s been awfully wet (this summer) and it’s like your
lawn or mine. You get to it when you’re able,” Stone said. Halleck said
criticisms like the mowing and table with leftover food on it are just a
snapshot in time, and the other complaints — except for the staffing — are
much ado about nothing. “The short answer to all this is we are addressing
these concerns immediately and in an appropriate manner,” he said. “We’re not
trying to run a five-star facility here. It’s a jail.” The grand jury report
came out about the same time a new jail warden was hired, the fifth person to
hold the job in the past 20 months.
Jun 3, 2017 salemnews.net
Warden at jail leaves after 2 months
LISBON — The revolving door at the Columbiana County Jail continues, with
the latest warden leaving after only two months on the job. County
Commissioner Mike Halleck confirmed that Mike Porter left about two weeks ago
to return to his home and family in Texas. He said it is his understanding
Porter resigned for personal reasons. Porter was the fourth new warden in
less than two years. The revolving door began late in 2015, when Edward
Sheldon was hired to replace longtime warden Gary Grimm. Sheldon lasted until
February 2016, when he quit to take another job and was replaced by Frank
Kaman, who left in the summer of 2016 after a few months. He was followed by
Roy Morrison, who quit this past March and was replaced by Porter. Halleck
remains unconcerned by the turnover in the warden position as long as they
remain satisfied with how the jail is operated, and they are, he said.
Community Education Centers, the private company hired by commissioners to
operate the 192-bed jail, was acquired by the GEO Group in February. “This is
just the nature of the business,” Halleck said of the turnover in the top
position, adding that filling the warden position is GEO’s responsibility.
“It doesn’t concern us because we are charged the same either way.” As for
GEO, “They’ve made some changes we’re pleased with,” he said. Halleck has
dismissed any suggestion the merry-go-round in wardens contributed to an
incident that occurred last October, when three inmates overdosed nearly
simultaneously on the same batch of heroin smuggled into the jail. He said
preventing contraband from being smuggled into jails is a constant problem
faced by every jail in the country. He said commissioners routinely make
unannounced visits to the jail to see for themselves how things are being
run.
November 17, 2011 Salem News
A former employee of Civigenics, the company which
provides prison management at the Columbiana County Jail filed a wrongful
termination suit Tuesday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court. Stephen Crea, East Liverpool, claims age discrimination was
behind the company releasing him on May 19. He was 60 years old when he was
let go and the person who replaced him was under 40. Warden Gary Grimm
reportedly told him "it is better that we part ways now" and let
him go without further explanation, according to court documents. Besides
lost wages and benefits, the court documents also allege Crea's
civil rights were violated. He is seeking in excess of $25,000 in damages.
December 10, 2010 The Review
A former Columbiana County Jail inmate won $262,850 in damages from a fellow
inmate he said assaulted him for refusing to bring in contraband after
returning from work release. Jeffrey Woodburn, of Lisbon, formerly of
Wellsville, won a default judgment against Aaron Holt of East Liverpool in
October after Judge C. Ashley Pike of Common Pleas Court found Holt liable
for damages. Last month a hearing was held to determine the amount of
damages, with a judgment entry signed this week to outline the breakdown.
According to the entry, Woodburn was awarded $12,850 for compensatory
damages, $100,000 in monetary damages for pain and suffering and $150,000 in
punitive damages for a total of $262,850. Court costs accrued after other
defendants were dismissed were taxed to Holt . The
entry also prohibited Holt from trying to discharge the judgment in a
bankruptcy proceeding. Woodburn filed the complaint in July 2009 over a July
23, 2008 incident inside the jail when some fellow inmates assaulted him
because he said he refused to bring them cigarettes and drugs when he
returned from work release. He had been in jail for domestic violence, but
had work release privileges, meaning he could leave the jail to go to work
and then come back. According to the lawsuit, Woodburn had reported the
threats made against him to jail personnel who placed him in protective
custody in his own cell in a separate section of the lockup. The document
said security measures were breached when Holt, and a few other inmates were
able to enter his cell and beat him, resulting in injuries and
hospitalization. An assault charge was filed against Holt but was later dismissed.
Apparently he was unavailable because the jail permitted him to be
transported out of the county, according to court entries. There were no
charges filed against the other two known inmates, David Crow of Wellsville
and Derrick Howard of Youngstown. The lawsuit had been filed against Holt,
Crow and Howard, along with the company operating the jail, Community
Education Centers Inc., part of CiviGenics Texas,
and the Columbiana County Commissioners. The claims against everyone except
for Holt had been dropped.
December 3, 2010 Vindicator
A charge of domestic violence has been dismissed against a man who was
injured when he jumped from a second story Columbiana County jail-cell block
Nov. 16. Ronald E. Davie, 28, of Calcutta Smith Road, East Liverpool, suffered
serious head injuries. The jail is run by a private company, CiviGenics Inc. of Milford, Mass. Columbiana County
Prosecutor Robert Herron said that Sheriff Ray Stone suggested that the
charge should be dropped to save the county money. Davie was taken to St.
Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown. The county would have to pay a deputy
to watch Davie in the hospital. Herron said the county had initially made
arrangements with security officials at the hospital to monitor Davie. Herron
said he did not know who would care for Davie. Davie’s father, William Davie
of St. Clair Township, said, “They just threw him to the wolves. ... I don’t
know what is going to happen.”
November 18, 2010 Vindicator
Peter Argeropulos, the chief operating officer for CiviGenics Inc. in Milford, Mass., was unavailable
Wednesday to comment about reports that an inmate in the Columbiana County
jail severely injured himself Tuesday by jumping from a second-story cell
block. CiviGenics, a private company, runs the
jail. County Sheriff Ray Stone referred questions about the incident to CiviGenics. The warden at the jail who works for CiviGenics was not available.
October 13, 2010 Vindicator
The Columbiana County sheriff’s office is investigating the death of Amy
Fortune, 35, of Main Street, Minerva, found dead Saturday morning in her
Columbiana County jail cell. Sheriff Ray Stone said she was serving three
days for driving while under a license suspension. Stone said that she was
then going to be transferred to the Tuscarawas County jail on a charge of
assault on a corrections officer. Peter Argeropulos,
the chief operating officer for CiviGenics Inc., of
Milford, Mass., the private company that runs the county jail, said that
Fortune was in a cell with another woman. The second woman left the cell to
help prepare breakfast for the other inmates about 5:30 a.m. An officer
making rounds in the jail found Fortune on the floor of the cell. CPR was
administered, and she was taken to Salem Community Hospital, where she was
pronounced dead. An autopsy was performed at the Cuyahoga County coroner’s
office, but Columbiana County Coroner Dr. William Graham has not issued a
ruling.
August 11, 2010 The Review
A lawsuit filed against the private operator of the Columbiana County Jail
and the county commissioners has been dismissed, but remains against inmates
who assaulted another inmate. Jeffrey Woodburn of Lisbon, formerly of
Wellsville, filed the complaint in July 2009 over a July 2008 attack which
occurred after he refused to bring tobacco and drugs to the other inmates
when he returned to the lockup from work release. A recent judgment entry
said the complaint was settled and dismissed against Community Education
Centers Inc. and CiviGenics Texas, along with the
county board of commissioners, only, at the defendant's costs. The entry
didn't note the terms of the settlement. The case apparently remains against
the inmates who were named as defendants in the lawsuit, including Aaron Holt
of East Liverpool, David Crow of Wellsville and Derrick Howard of Youngstown.
The claims against the jail operator and commissioners included alleged
negligence and a security breach which Woodburn alleged led to the attack.
The lawsuit said Woodburn reported the threats to jail personnel who placed
him in protective custody in his own cell in a separate section of the jail.
The document said security measures were breached on July 23, 2008 when Holt,
Crow, Howard and possibly a fourth inmate were able to enter Woodburn's cell
and beat him, requiring hospitalization.
July 22, 2010 The Salem News
A Lisbon woman fired from her job as a corrections officer at the Columbiana
County Jail filed a lawsuit Wednesday to challenge the action as
discriminatory based on her gender, her age and her religion. Janet Logan,
state Route 164, named four defendants in her complaint, including the
private company operating the jail, CiviGenics
Texas Inc., doing business as Community Education Centers Inc. Other
defendants include supervisor Peter Neiheisel, a
lieutenant and chief of operations for the jail, assistant jail warden Jay
Nolte and jail warden Gary Grimm. Logan started working for CiviGenics as a corrections officer on April 28, 1998. On
Jan. 21 of this year, she was suspended from her job for three days for
allegedly fighting with a corrections officer, then she was told on Jan. 25
that she was terminated. In the lawsuit, Logan contended that she was
wrongfully suspended and terminated for alleged "unsatisfactory work
performance" based on allegations that she fought with another
corrections officer and discussed staff with inmates. She claimed the
allegations weren't true. Her contention was that she was discriminated
against because she was a woman, because she was 50 years old and because of
her religious belief that she not work on Sundays. She claimed she was
replaced by a male corrections officer and since 2001 was continuously passed
over for promotions. In late 2009, she said she was reduced to one or two
days a week while male officers continued to work their schedules without a
reduction. She also claimed males were treated more favorably, females were
hired in less numbers than males and a statement was made that "females do
not belong in this workplace." As for her religious beliefs, she said
she told the previous warden and assistant warden about her practice and was
told she would be scheduled on Monday through Thursday and be put in a
full-time position when a slot became available. She wasn't scheduled to work
Sundays. When Nolte and Grimm came into place, she told them about her
religious beliefs and did not work Sundays. When she relayed to them that she
wanted to become full-time, they said she couldn't become full-time or be
promoted because she wouldn't work on Sundays. She said others with similar
religious beliefs have been promoted and not scheduled to work on Sundays.
She also said her age played into her reduced schedule and the alleged
attempt to get her to quit. Logan claimed Neiheisel,
Nolte and Grimm violated her civil rights by their actions, alleging they
used false information against her. She's requesting damages in excess of
$25,000. A call for comment was placed to a CiviGenics
official, Peter Argeropulous, but wasn't returned
Wednesday afternoon.
July 23, 2009 Morning Journal News
A former jail inmate assaulted by fellow inmates at the Columbiana County
jail one year ago today filed a promised lawsuit, claiming negligence and a
security breach led to the attack. Jeffrey Woodburn of Wellsville named the
private jail operator known as Community Education Centers Inc. and CiviGenics Texas, along with the county board of
commissioners, the named inmates Aaron Holt of East Liverpool, David Crow of
Wellsville and Derrick Howard of Youngstown and an unnamed inmate as
defendants. The case appears to be another byproduct of inmates trying to
persuade others to smuggle drugs and tobacco into the lockup, with the
lawsuit alleging Woodburn was "threatened by other inmates after he
refused to bring them tobacco and drugs upon his return to the jail from work
release." Three jailers were charged with bringing drugs onto the
grounds of the jail facility, with two imprisoned and one found innocent of
the felony charge. During testimony, he said the inmates kept asking him to
bring items in to them, and others testified about inmates using cell phones
to place orders for drugs. According to the lawsuit, Woodburn reported the
threats against him to jail personnel who placed him in protective custody in
his own cell in a separate section of the jail. The document said security
measures were breached on July 23, 2008, when Holt, Crow, Howard and possibly
a fourth inmate were able to enter Woodburn's cell and beat him, requiring
hospitalization. CiviGenics reported the incident
to the Sheriff's Office at 9:58 a.m. July 25, according to a Sheriff's Office
report, which noted the incident occurred at 8:55 p.m. July 23. The report said "an unknown inmate hit the emergency button on
the control panel in pod 30 section of the jail," which released the
doors of all the cells for evacuation. The three named inmates entered
Woodburn's cell and allegedly kicked and punched him in the face and chest,
the report said. The report listed no arrests for the assault. According to
Columbiana County Municipal Court records, no charges were filed against Crow
or Howard, but an assault charge was filed against Holt on July 29. However,
it was later dismissed in September due to the unavailability of the defendant.
The entry on the Clerk of Courts Web site said the jail let the defendant be
transported out of the county. CiviGenics, which
operates Community Education Centers Inc., is under contract with the county
commissioners to operate the jail, a deal the commissioners first brokered in
1997 as a cost-saving measure. The contract expires in December. Woodburn,
who was in jail for domestic violence, was released early as a result of the
assault. His attorney, Lawrence Stacey II, first raised the issue of a
negligence lawsuit last August when he filed motions for the release of
Woodburn and two other inmates due to threats from inmates who wanted them to
smuggle contraband into the facility. All three had work release privileges,
which meant they could leave the jail to go to work and then come back.
Woodburn requested damages in excess of $25,000, with Judge C. Ashley Pike
assigned to the case. Commissioner Jim Hoppel, when
questioned about the lawsuit, said they were advised of the incident when it
happened last year. "The situation has been addressed," he said
when asked about the alleged security breach. "With the contract we have
with CiviGenics, we're held harmless with any
lawsuits," he said, adding, though, they'll refer it to the prosecutor's
office. Peter Argeropulos, CiviGenics
senior vice president, confirmed what Hoppel said
about the hold harmless clause, saying the county is insulated against
anything that may occur at the jail. He said they hadn't been served with the
lawsuit, but said they'll refer the case to their attorney and take
appropriate steps. When asked about the situation with the drug smuggling
into the jail, he said they work closely with the Sheriff's Office and the
county Drug Task Force. "Overall I think we've got a pretty solid track
record. We have good employees at the jail," he said.
May 5, 2009 The Review
A former CiviGenics guard accused of smuggling
marijuana to inmates became an inmate himself after being sentenced to seven
months in prison last week. Nathaniel Barnes, 29, of Youngstown, appeared for
sentencing in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court for attempted illegal
conveyance of a drug of abuse onto the grounds of a detention facility, a
fourth-degree felony. He was originally indicted for a third-degree felony
count for illegal conveyance. Judge David Tobin issued the sentence, giving
Barnes credit for four days already served in jail. When Barnes entered a
guilty plea in March, county Chief Assistant Prosecutor John Gamble said he
would recommend a one-year prison term. The charge carried a possible penalty
of six to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The original charge would
have meant a possible prison term of one to five years. Barnes was the second
former guard sent to prison for smuggling contraband into the county jail to
sell to inmates. Former guard Gary J. Ludt was
sentenced to prison for 18 months in October 2007 for the same crime. A third
former guard, Jason L. Jackson, was found innocent of illegal conveyance
during a jury trial last month. According to Gamble, inmates would send a
money order to a post office box in Campbell in Mahoning County and order
what they wanted, then Barnes would make the delivery at the jail.
February 5, 2009 Salem News
A former CiviGenics guard accused of smuggling
marijuana into the Columbiana County jail to sell to inmates pled guilty
Wednesday to an amended felony charge. Nathaniel Barnes, 29, of Boardman,
entered the plea in Common Pleas Court to attempted illegal conveyance of a
drug of abuse onto the grounds of a detention facility, a fourth-degree
felony. He was originally indicted for a third-degree felony count for
illegal conveyance. In the past couple of years, three different guards at
the county jail have been indicted for smuggling contraband into the lockup as
part of scheme to sell marijuana and cigarettes to inmates in exchange for
money.
December 18, 2008 Morning Journal News
An oversight on the part of Columbiana County commissioners when they
privatized the county jail will cost $464,837 to correct. This is the amount
commissioners agreed on Wednesday to pay into the retirement accounts of
three former and two current jail employees to settle a lawsuit filed in
2004. The roots of the dispute can be traced back to 1998, when commissioners
hired CiviGenics Inc. to take over jail operations,
thereby abolishing the corrections officer positions as county employees,
some of whom were rehired by the company. In 2004, an attorney representing
some of the former jail employees now working for CiviGenics
initiated legal action, saying commissioners were required to continue
contributing into their public employee pension accounts under the Ohio
Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) even though the county no longer
operated the jail. Their attorney cited a state law requiring contributions
continue into the retirement accounts of a public employee whose job was
abolished due to privatization. This applies to only those employees who
returned to work for the private operator and continued to perform the same
or similar duties as before. Commissioners fought the ruling for the next
several years until the OPERS board ruled against them in 2007. When
commissioners failed to act quickly enough, the attorney then filed a lawsuit
with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals forcing them to comply with the
ruling. Commissioners did so on April 30, 2008, when they entered into a
consent settlement with the five workers. The next seven months were spent
trying to calculate how much these employees would be owed in their public
retirement accounts. County Auditor Nancy Milliken arrived at yesterday's
meeting with the figure - $464,837 - which represents back employee and
employer contributions, interest and penalties. The five employees are Pete Neiheisel, Melvin Jordan, Joe Weston, Gene St. John and
Jerry Foreman. Three of these employees no longer work at the jail, however.
As for the two who remain, commissioners will be required to make the
employer contributions into their retirement accounts, which Milliken said
will come out to a combined $12,000 in 2009, or 14 percent of their salary.
The two workers, and not commissioners, will resume making the employee
contributions into OPERS, although the law seemed to indicate this was the
county's responsibility. But Milliken said she received an opinion from the
Ohio Attorney General's Office stating the employees would be responsible for
making their matching contribution.
December 11, 2008 The Review
The escape of four inmates from the Columbiana County jail this summer
has led to the purchase of a new camera system for the outside perimeter of
the lockup, giving better coverage and better views, Commissioner Jim Hoppel said. The commissioners approved the purchase
Wednesday from Radi-O-Sound Communications of
Salem, with $47,684 covering the equipment and $8,600 covering the
installation. The money will come from the general fund. Two quotes were
sought through state purchasing, with a Mahoning County firm submitting the
other price. Hoppel said they were close in price
for the cameras and the Salem firm didn't beat the other company by much for
the installation price. He said they try to use local vendors when they can.
The new system will include up to 16 cameras and will allow the warden to tap
into the system from home to monitor what's happening. The sheriff also will
have the ability to tap into the system. "Would this have stopped the
escape?" Hoppel asked, then answered himself,
"no." He admitted there were some problems with the old cameras,
noting their age and the weather affecting them. The new camera system is
just part of what they're doing to upgrade security equipment since the
escape. With the improvements in technology, he said it was time to upgrade.
A report looked at what led to the escape on Aug. 17 when four inmates broke
into a maintenance closet, entered an access panel and crawled through the
utility duct work to get to the roof where they managed to open a hatch to
get outside, then jumped from the roof to the parking lot and freedom for a
day. They were all caught together in a stolen car in Pennsylvania, near
Pittsburgh. According to the report, some jail personnel didn't follow proper
procedure for counting inmates or conducting security checks, leading to
three jail employees being fired in the aftermath of the escape. Hoppel said they bolted down the hatches to the roof and
have instituted other improvements to prevent escape.
September 12, 2008 Youngstown Vindicator
Three staff members were fired in the wake of the escape from the Columbiana
County Jail on Aug. 17. Their names were not released in a report Thursday by
the county commissioners, who own the jail west of Lisbon. The workers were
not county employees. The commissioners lease the jail to Community Education
Centers, a private company based in West Caldwell, N. J., that runs detention
facilities and programs to help prisoners turn their lives around. Four
prisoners, William E. Merritt, Mark Foden, John Hamilton and Jason W. Hefner
Sr., escaped from the jail between 8:30 and 9 p.m. They were recaptured the
next day near Pittsburgh. John Gilbert, CEC’s deputy director/secure facility
division, wrote, “It is clear that staff complacency and physical plant
vulnerabilities played a key role in the escape.” The prisoners “used sheets,
blankets, pillows, personal clothing and other personal items to craft human
shape [sic] dummies on their beds, then covered them with sheets, creating
the appearance of a body asleep in the bed,” Gilbert wrote. Established
policies and procedures for counting prisoners were not followed. The report
says that the 10:45 p.m. prisoner count will now be a “stand-up face-to-face
count with verification that each inmate is in their cell.” Sheriff’s
officials initially thought the escape occurred later in the night. The
sheriff’s office is conducting its own investigation. Sheriff Raymond Stone
could not be reached. He took office after the escape. Former Sheriff David
Smith said the lock on the maintenance door was smashed. The company’s report
said the door was “manipulated.” Peter Argeropulos,
senior vice president for the CEC, said prisoners got into a maintenance
closet and were able to access and move through a crawl space to eventually
reach the roof. They dropped off the front of the jail, where there is no
fence, and took off. Argeropulos said the escapees
were able to somehow release the hatch on the roof. New security measures
have been taken to secure other hatches in the building, and some locks have
been upgraded. He said that he did not think a fence was needed at the front
of the jail, which includes the coroner’s office.
August 29, 2008 Morning Journal News
Three Columbiana County Jail inmates were let out of their sentences early in
August after one of them was severely beaten and the others were threatened.
The three are represented by attorney Lawrence Stacey II, who says the
threats came from fellow inmates who wanted his clients to smuggle drugs and
cigarettes into the jail. He is contemplating filing a negligence lawsuit on
their behalf against county commissioners and CiviGenics
Inc., the private company that operates the jail under contract with
commissioners. The three inmates are: - Jeffrey B. Woodburn, 38, sentenced to
four months in jail for domestic violence. - Michael Lentini,
39, sentenced to 100 days for domestic violence. - Jonathan McGarry, 19,
sentenced to six months for assault. The charges were misdemeanors, and
Stacey said all three had work release privileges at the outset of their
sentences, which means they were allowed to leave the jail to go to and from
their jobs. Because these were violence-related crimes, they were serving
their sentences in the maximum-security wing of the jail complex, where they
came into contact with accused felons awaiting trial. Stacey said some of the
accused felons ordered his clients to smuggle illegal drugs and cigarettes
into the jail for them when returning from work, "or something bad would
happen." "All three had received verbal or written threats from
hard-core felons in there," Stacey said. Woodburn refused to smuggle in
contraband and on July 23 he was assaulted in his cell by three other
inmates, who kicked and punched him about the face and chest. Woodburn was
taken to Salem Community Hospital with a punctured lung and numerous bruises
and cuts. This prompted Stacey to file his motion for early release to
protect his client. In his motion, Stacey accused the jail staff of being
forewarned of the threats and then failing to "take the necessary steps
to protect (Woodburn)" from being attacked. County Municipal Court Judge
Carol Robb granted Stacey's motion, and the subsequent early-release motions
he filed on behalf of Lentini and McGarry. They
were all placed on probation for the remainder of their sentences and placed
under electronically monitored house arrest. "As a result of what's been
going on, the judges have had no choice but release these inmates
early," Stacey said. "The judges are doing the responsible
thing." What Stacey finds most troubling is that Woodburn was placed in
an isolation cell after reporting the threats, but that didn't prevent the
inmates from getting to him on July 23. According to incident report filed by
the county sheriff's office, an unknown inmate gained access to the emergency
button on the control panel that released all of the doors in cell pod 30.
"I don't know how these inmates were able to get to the control panel
and unlock all of the jail cells" to get to Woodburn, said Stacey, who
was been trying to get a copy of the report for the past month. A call to the
jail warden's office went unreturned. Jail security is currently being
reviewed after three inmates escaped from the jail on Aug. 18 by breaking
into a locked closet and finding a panel that opened to duct work leading to
the roof. A report on the escape is expected to be released any day, but
preliminary indications are one of the contributing factors is jail staff
failed to properly perform a head count when securing inmates in their cells
that night. In June, another inmate escaped after kicking out an unsecure
window leading to the parking lot outside the minimum-security wing of the
jail. During the past two years, three former jail guards have been charged
with smuggling drugs into the facility, one of whom was convicted and another
one has gone missing while awaiting awaiting trial.
The third one is scheduled to go on trial next year.
August 26, 2008 Salem News
Four inmates who broke out of the Columbiana County Jail earlier this
month will face preliminary hearings on felony escape charges Thursday in
county Municipal Court. William Merritt, 40, and Mark Foden, 38, both of East
Liverpool, Jason Heffner, 28, of Salineville, and
John Hamilton, 21, of Salem, appeared via video from the county jail for
arraignment on the charges Friday, with bonds of $250,000 cash or surety set.
Heffner's girlfriend, Melissa McCulley, 26, of Salineville,
appeared for arraignment Monday for a felony charge of complicity to escape,
with a bond of $50,000 cash or surety set. She'll also face a preliminary
hearing Thursday. The four inmates broke into a locked closet, through an
access door and then crawled through duct work until they reached a hatch
door to the roof. They broke through to the outside, then jumped to the
ground to make their escape, according to investigators. Officials also
suspected they stole a car from a Trinity Church Road property in Lisbon. All
four men and McCulley were found with the car in Bellevue, Pennsylvania,
where they were taken into custody. According to Sheriff David Smith,
personnel of the private company operating the jail may not have done a
proper head count, leading to a late discovery of the fact that four inmates
were gone. CiviGenics officials are preparing a
report to provide to county commissioners and the sheriff regarding the
investigation and the action they'll take in response to the escape.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel said they aren't expecting
the report until the end of this week.
August 20, 2008 The Vindicator
Four prisoners broke out of the Columbiana County Jail by smashing a lock
on a steel door. Sheriff David Smith said Tuesday that breaking the lock
allowed the prisoners to leave the jail area and access a closet that held a
shaft containing wiring and plumbing. The four apparently climbed the shaft
to the jail roof and jumped to the ground Monday morning. The men were
apprehended about 1:30 p.m. Monday in Bellevue, Pa. Just what was used to
break the lock and why it was in the jail is under investigation, Smith said,
Allen Haueter, Smith’s chief deputy, said it was
the first major escape at the jail since it opened about 11 years ago. The
jail, west of Lisbon, is owned by the county and houses the sheriff’s and
coroner’s offices. The facility, however, is run by CiviGenics
Inc. of Milford, Mass., which operates some 11 jails in Texas and Ohio. Peter
Argeropulos, the chief operating officer for CiviGenics, came to Lisbon late Monday to investigate.
The sheriff’s office and CiviGenics plan to issue
reports on what happened. Argeropulos said a team
from the company had toured the jail. “The lock was compromised,” he said.
How that was done isn’t clear. Argeropulos said the
prisoner head count was apparently flawed at 10:45 p.m. Sunday, when jailers
make head counts, rounds and check areas such as showers. He said the company
may have to revise its counting procedures. Smith said his detective, Steve
Walker, was interviewing the four escapees and a girlfriend of one of them
Tuesday in the Allegheny County Jail.
August 20, 2008 Salem News
A procedure to ensure inmates are in their cells after lockdown may not
have happened Sunday night when four prisoners escaped from the maximum
security section of the Columbiana County jail, according to Sheriff David
Smith. Smith explained that lockdown occurs at 11 p.m. and a guard
"supposedly" goes to each door and physically sees and physically
knows that a person is in their cell. "Apparently that didn't
happen," he said in reference to Sunday night. William Merritt, 40, and
Mark Foden, 38, both of East Liverpool, Jason Heffner, 28, of Salineville, and John Hamilton, 21, of Salem, crawled
their way to freedom through the duct work in the facility, breaking through
a hatch door to the roof and then jumping to the ground. Officials suspected
they stole a 1995 Buick from a Trinity Church Road property in Lisbon. All four
escapees and Heffner's girlfriend, Melissa McCulley, 26, of Salineville, were taken into custody Monday afternoon in
Bellevue, Pa., after the stolen car was spotted by police. Bellevue is
located near Pittsburgh. They were expected to be extradited back to Ohio to
face charges of felony escape, with McCulley to be charged with complicity to
escape. Smith said his personnel traveled to the Allegheny County jail on
Tuesday to interview the suspects. Back at the Columbiana County jail, which
is operated by the private firm CiviGenics,
officials from the Sheriff's Office and the company were interviewing
employees. CiviGenics flew in personnel from Texas
and Massachusetts to launch an internal investigation of the incident.
"I'm sure we'll get to the bottom of exactly what happened," Smith
said. He estimated the time of escape occurred between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m.,
noting the missing men were seen at a residence outside Summitville at 1:15
a.m. Monday. For them to break into a utility closet, break through an access
door, crawl through the duct work, break through a hatch to the roof and
leave the grounds would have taken at least a couple hours, Smith theoried. They would have needed more time then to steal
the car and get to Summitville and to pick up McCulley. When asked if a head
count was completed at shift change, Smith said that's something being
investigated. When asked to clarify if they were checking to see if a proper
head count was completed, he responded, "The key word there is
proper." Questions remained about how they pulled off the escape, with
the sheriff saying he didn't know how they found the escape route they took.
He estimated they had to crawl at least 40 feet in total darkness through a
passageway full of pipes and no wider than 3 feet in diameter. In spots, he
said he was told the piping runs through the middle of the duct and they
would have had to maneuver around it. As for the doors, he said they had to
break through three of them, beginning with the locked steel door to the
closet, the panel door leading into the duct work and then the hatch to the
roof which is pinned from the outside. He didn't know what they used to make
entry into the doors. "How these guys got out is unbelievable,"
Smith said. When asked about their jail jumpsuits being on the roof, he said
he didn't know anything about their clothing situation. All four men had
hearings pending in Common Pleas Court this week from charges which could
result in prison time. Merritt was supposed to be arraigned Monday for
first-degree felony charges of attempted murder and aggravated robbery for
allegedly beating and stabbing a woman he knows last month in East Liverpool.
Foden had been scheduled to face trial Tuesday for two counts of robbery, a
second-degree felony, for allegedly robbing two East Liverpool stores in
March and threatening the clerks in the process. Heffner had a pretrial set
for Friday for single counts of attempted theft, breaking and entering, theft
and receiving stolen property and four counts of burglary. Hamilton also had
a pretrial set for Friday for identity theft, misuse of credit card and
receiving stolen property.
August 19, 2008 Salem News
A spokesman for the private firm operating the Columbiana County Jail
said company personnel will work with Sheriff David Smith to investigate an
escape of four prisoners and take the necessary steps to ensure it doesn't
happen again. "They'll evaluate what transpired," CiviGenics Senior Vice President Peter Argeropulos said Monday. Argeropulos
arrived in the county late Monday afternoon, along with John Gilbert,
director for the secured facilities division of CiviGenics.
A senior warden from another facility was expected to arrive today. The
warden of the Columbiana County facility is Gary Grimm, who used to work for
the Federal Bureau of Prisons at the Elkton facility outside Lisbon. The
company headquartered in Massachusetts operates 16 facilities in Ohio, Texas
and Arizona. The Columbiana County Commissioners first signed a contract with
the company in late 1997 to privatize the jail operation. The company started
operating the then-new full-service jail in January 1998. Argeropulos
couldn't release any details specific to the incident which resulted in four
inmates escaping through the duct work onto the roof and then jumping from
the roof to the ground without getting caught. They were later captured in
Pennsylvania in a car stolen from a Trinity Church Road property not far from
the jail, which is located on County Home Road, both off of U.S. Route 30
between Lisbon and Hanoverton. He deferred to Smith for details about the
incident, but said the company's standard practice is to conduct an after
action incident review. A team of officials is brought to the site to assess
the situation, evaluate the security procedures and make a list of
recommendations, if necessary. The report will be provided to the sheriff and
to the county commissioners. "Obviously this is something we're
concerned about. We'll get to the bottom of it," he said. According to Argeropulos, jail staff members make rounds on the hour
to check on inmates, with a requirement "to see living, breathing
flesh." They also do head counts as part of their standard procedures.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel said he was told they do a
count of inmates at the beginning of each shift and at the end of each shift
besides going periodic checks. Shift change came at 11 p.m. Sunday. Sometime
before 6 a.m., the prisoners escaped. Hoppel
received a call at 6:48 a.m. Monday to notify him of the escape, then he
called Commissioner Dan Bing and Commissioner Penny Traina
to advise them. He went to the scene and was on the roof in the area where
the inmates climbed through a hatch. More locks have been placed on the roof
hatches as a result of what happened. Smith said jail personnel were being
interviewed as part of the investigation and videotapes were being reviewed.
According to Hoppel, this was the first escape that
he could recall from the full-service jail. In May, an inmate broke through a
window in the minimum security wing to escape, but was later caught. Since
then, Hoppel said bars have been placed on the
windows. Two years ago, two minimum security inmates who were working outside
escaped by riding off on a John Deere tractor when they were supposed to be
mowing grass. That same week, another inmate who was working at the
Courthouse in downtown Lisbon walked off. He was also caught eventually.
May 31, 2008 Vindicator
A couple has been charged after a jail break and chase that ended when they
crashed into a West Virginia nursing home forcing the evacuation of 24
people. In Columbiana County, Larry Williams, 35, of Lisbon, is charged with
escape and vandalism. His girlfriend, Candy Kibler,
37, also of Lisbon, is charged with felony obstruction of justice. Both have
criminal records. They are in Southwest Regional Jail in Bexley, W.Va. They
were taken into custody about 12:15 a.m. Friday by West Virginia authorities.
Allen Haueter, chief deputy for the Columbiana
County sheriff’s office, said Friday that Williams escaped from the jail’s
minimum-security section. He had been talking to Kibler
on the phone, apparently about her former boyfriend who allegedly owed her
money, and he became angry. That portion of the jail is a former nursing home
and is run by a private company, CiviGenics Inc. of
Milford, Mass. Peter Argeropulos, CiviGenics’ chief operating officer, said Williams took
an air conditioning unit out of the wall, and used a piece of wood that
supported it to smash the window and escape. Haueter
said a deputy coming to the jail saw Williams running away. Authorities went
to Kibler’s home but did not find Williams. Haueter said Williams apparently stole a car from a home
near the jail, drove to Lisbon to pick up Kibler,
and went to Kensington to see her ex-boyfriend to get money. Haueter said the couple drove to Wooster in Wayne County,
where they allegedly stole another vehicle. Haueter
said the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation is to
process the vehicle Monday for any evidence. Chief Tim Stover of the Lewisburg
Police Department in West Virginia said his officers saw the couple driving
and tried to stop the vehicle that went across a field and a parking lot and
crashed into the kitchen of the Brier Nursing Home. Stover said 24 residents
were transferred to the Greenbrier Valley Medical Center as a precautionary
measure. The crash ruptured a natural gas line. No one at the nursing home
facility was hurt, he added. Williams and Kibler
were both treated for minor injuries at the medical center. The crash caused
an estimated $10,000 to $15,000 to the facility. The couple are in the West
Virginia jail on fugitive warrants. Stover said he would wait to see how the
extradition hearings progressed before deciding whether to pursue charges in
Lewisburg.
May 1, 2008 Morning Journal News
A decision by Columbiana County commissioners to settle a dispute over
retirement benefits for five former county jail employees could prove costly.
Just how much so has yet to be determined, but it could be substantial.
Commissioners voted at Wednesday’s meeting to enter into a consent agreement
with the former jail employees to resolve a lawsuit filed earlier this year
with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals. The lawsuit sought a court order
requiring commissioners to comply with a decision by the Ohio Public
Employees Retirement System (OPERS), which ruled last November five former
employees were entitled to retirement benefits dating back to 1998, when a
private company took over operating the jail. CiviGenics
Inc., the company hired by commissioners to operate the jail, hired a number
of the former county jail employees who lost their jobs due to privatization.
In 2004, an attorney representing some of the jail employees initiated legal
action saying commissioners were required to continue contributing into the
OPERS on their behalf even though though the county
no longer operated the jail. The attorney cited a state law that requires
contributions continue to be made into a public employee pension plan of a
public employee whose job was abolished due to privatization. This applies if
the employee went to work for the private operator and continued to perform
the same or similar job duties. Commissioners fought the ruling for the next
several years until the OPERS board issued its ruling six months ago. When
commissioners failed to act quickly enough to suit the attorney, the lawsuit
was filed with the appeals court. Yesterday’s agreement to resolve the
lawsuit requires commissioners to pay both the employee and employer share of
OPERS (about 14 percent of their salary) dating back to when the five
employees were hired by CiviGenics and to continue
contributing into their public employee pension plan as long as they remain
employed by CiviGenics. The figure is to include
penalties and interest, with everything to be completed by June 30. No one
seems to know for sure how much the settlement will cost. County Auditor
Nancy Milliken said at one time she heard the figures $500,000-$600,000
thrown around, while Commissioner Chairman Dan Bing said it could exceed $1
million. Commissioner Jim Hoppel is the only
current commissioner who was in office when the decision was made to hire CiviGenics as a way to save money, which he says it has
done. “With privatizing the jail we’ve saved in 101/2 years in the vicinity
of $10 million,” Hoppel said. Although Hoppel doesn’t know how much the settlement will cost the
county, he is confident it will be significantly less than what the county
has saved. Bing said he doesn’t know where the money will come from to pay
the settlement. “It’s all because somebody didn’t do their job in the past,”
he said. Milliken said her office must obtain the workers’ pay rates from CiviGenics during the period of their employment and
begin making the calculations based on the OPERS rates. The information would
then have to be submitted to the OPERS board for approval. This would be the
second large settlement commissioners would have to pay out because of their
decision to privatize the county jail. In 2002, commissioners agreed to pay
$300,000 to former jail employees to resolve outstanding labor complaints
arising over privatization.
January 20, 2008 Morning Journal News
Another corrections officer at the Columbiana County Jail, Nathaniel Barnes
of Youngstown, has been charged for reportedly smuggling marijuana and
cigarette tobacco to inmates. It is the second time in less than a year a
correction officer in Lisbon traded in his uniform for an orange jumpsuit for
allegedly smuggling items to inmates. Barnes, 28, was charged early Saturday
with conveyance of a substance into a corrections facility, which is a felony
charge. Dan Downard of the Columbiana County Drug
Task Force said the charge was part of an ongoing investigation that came
after agents were made aware that one or more corrections officers were
smuggling marijuana or cigarette tobacco to the inmates. He credited the
warden at the county jail, operated by CiviGenics
Inc., with being very cooperative. “The warden’s been a wonderful asset,” Downard said. “He is adamant that he doesn’t want that
kind of stuff going into the jail.” Another corrections officer, Gary J. Ludt, 37, Bergholtz pleaded in
August 2007 to a similar charge of smuggling marijuana to inmates. He was
sentenced to 18 months in prison.
January 11, 2008 Morning Journal News
A ruling requiring Columbiana County commissioners to pay into the
retirement plans of five former county jail employees could provide
expensive. An attorney representing four of the five people filed a lawsuit
this week with the Ohio 7th District Court of Appeals seeking an order
requiring commissioners immediately comply with a recent decision by the Ohio
Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS). The OPERS board issued a final
order on Nov. 14 saying the five workers were entitled to have the county
continue paying into their OPERS while they were employed by CiviGenics Inc., the company now running the county jail.
The roots of the dispute extend back to 1997, when commissioners abolished
all of the county jail jobs and hired CiviGenics
Inc. to take over operations, starting in 1998. The private company hired a
number of former jail employees, some of whom are still working there. In
2004, an attorney representing former jail employees employed by CiviGenics initiated action seeking OPERS payments on
their behalf. The attorney cited a state law requiring contributions continue
into the pension plan of a public employee whose job was abolished due to
privatization. This applies to those former public employees who were hired
by the private company and continued to perform the same or similar duties
under their new employer. The OPERS ruled in January 2005 the law applied to
the five former jail employees hired by CiviGenics.
Commissioners and the county sheriff spent the next two years appealing the
decision through the OPERS system before the final ruling was issued two
months ago. At one time, the attorney stated 19 former jail employees were
affected, 11 of whom were no longer working for CiviGenics
as of 2005. This was contested by commissioners. Following the Nov. 15 ruling
by the OPERS board, the county auditor’s office was provided the necessary
paperwork to fill out in order for the retroactive pension compensation
payments to be made. This was followed up with a letter from the attorney,
who threatened to take legal action unless the county replied by the end of
the year. Officials don’t know how much the five employees are owed, but it
could be in significant, depending how long they worked for CiviGenics. Commissioners are required to contribute into
OPERS a dollar amount equal to about 14 percent of the employees’ salary,
with the employee required to contribute the same percentage. Commission
Chairman Jim Hoppel said they have yet to confer
with their attorney about the lawsuit and declined comment until then. He did
say the county has saved more than $7 million since hiring CiviGenics 10 years ago. It was commissioners who
inadvertently contributed to the situation that currently exists by
encouraging CiviGenics to hire as many ex-jail
employees as possible. “You try to be fair, but that’s the way it goes,” Hoppel said. This would be the second large settlement
commissioners would have to pay out because of their decision to privatize
county jail operations. In 2002, commissioners agreed to pay $300,000 to
former jail employees to resolve outstanding labor complaints arising out of
the privatization.
October 20, 2007 Morning Journal News
A fired county jail guard was sentenced to prison for smuggling marijuana
to inmates in exchange for money. Gary J. Ludt, 37,
of Bergholz, was sentenced to 18 months in prison
during a hearing Friday before Columbiana County Common Pleas Court Judge C.
Ashley Pike. In August, Ludt pleaded guilty to
smuggling and attempted smuggling of prohibited items into the jail.
Assistant County Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones recommended Ludt be sentenced to 18 months in prison because of the
seriousness of the crime and the fact he should be held to a higher standard
because of his position. “It goes without saying this kind of conduct maligns
law enforcement everywhere,” she said, adding that while under indictment Ludt was also charged in Jefferson County with possessing
weapons while under indictment. Defense attorney Sherrie Liebschner
pointed out her client didn’t have any a prior criminal record and he had
taken complete responsibility for his actions. She said the Jefferson County
charge was there result of Ludt going hunting. She
asked for leniency on behalf of Ludt. “My client is
afraid for his life in this matter.” Ludt had no
comment when it came time for him to address Judge Pike, who said his actions
damaged the public’s perception of the entire criminal justice system. The
crimes occurred in late September 2006. In both instances, Ludt was under surveillance by agents from the county
drug task force. In the one instance, Ludt was
caught in the jail parking with a package of marijuana that had been left for
him on top of one of his vehicle tires. Ludt was
arrested while walking to the jail after taking possession of the package.
Investigators claimed Ludt had been smuggling small
packages that included marijuana, tobacco, rolling papers, cigarettes and
lighters, which he sold to inmates for $20 to $50. Ludt
told investigators he needed the extra money. Ludt
was employed by CiviGenics Inc., the private
company hired by county commissioners to run the jail.
June 19, 2007 Salem News
A trial for a former corrections officer accused of smuggling marijuana
into the Columbiana County Jail remains set for June 26. Gary Ludt, 36, whose last known address was 102 W. Main St., Salineville, appeared Monday for a status hearing in
Common Pleas Court with his defense attorney Sherri Liebschner.
Liebschner advised Judge C. Ashley Pike that she
told her client the latest offer from the prosecutor’s office, but there was
no resolution to the case. Ludt was indicted last
fall for two counts of illegal conveyance of prohibited items onto the
grounds of a detention facility, both third-degree felonies. Court documents
said Ludt was working for CiviGenics
as a corrections officer and allegedly smuggled marijuana and tobacco into
the facility to sell to inmates last September.
March 9, 2007 Vindicator
An investigation into contraband being smuggled into the Columbiana County
Jail has been turned over to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and
Investigation. Sgt. Brian McLaughlin, director of the Columbiana County Drug
Task Force, said Thursday the move was made to avoid any appearance of
impropriety. The task force is based at the building that includes the
sheriff's and coroner's offices, as well as the jail that is run by CiviGenics Inc., a company in Milford, Mass. McLaughlin
declined to comment on the investigation but said it is ongoing. The task
force began investigating smuggling at the jail last year. Columbiana County
Common Pleas Court records indicate that at least one inmate used a cell
phone smuggled into the jail to try to get drugs brought into the facility.
Jason L. Jackson, 28, of East Liverpool, was suspended without pay Monday
from his part-time job as a St. Clair Township patrolman. He has not been
charged.
March 8, 2007 Morning Journal
A St. Clair Township police officer who was suspended this week is
suspected of smuggling marijuana and cell phones to county jail inmates,
according to court records. The officer, Jason L. Jackson, also was fired
Monday from his job as a guard at the Columbiana County Jail, according to
Jail Warden Hank Escola. A request for a search warrant received by the
county Drug Task Force indicated the DTF was investigating Jackson because of
allegations he was taking prohibited items into the county jail for inmates.
The alleged items included cell phones, marijuana and tobacco. The search
warrant stated the DTF received information in January that Jackson and
another guard had been engaging in this behavior. The investigation
culminated in the DTF obtaining a search warrant over the weekend for
Jackson’s pickup truck, with the warrant being executed Sunday. The report on
what the DTF may have found in Jackson’s truck has yet to be filed in county
Common Pleas Court. St. Clair Township Police Chief Don Hyatt told the
Morning Journal on Tuesday he suspended Jackson “while an investigation is
conducted into his alleged participation in criminal activity” and that this
criminal activity did not involve the township department. Warden Escola said
he fired Jackson Monday after being briefed by DTF officials. He said the
other implicated guard was fired last week for unrelated violations of policy
and procedures and failing to follow warden directives. He emphasized the
other guard’s dismissal had nothing to do with any of the alleged activities
involving Jackson. “That had been rumored, but there was no supportive
information presented to me” indicating the other guard was involved in any
illegal activity, he said. Jackson, 28, was still a probationary employee at
the jail, having worked there the past two months. The other guard had been
employed for the past 18 months. Last fall, former guard Gary Ludt was arrested after allegedly being caught in the act
of trying to smuggle the following items into the jail: marijuana, loose
tobacco, rolling papers and cigarette lighters. The items were found hidden
in Ludt’s belt when searched by DTF agents while he
was walking from his vehicle in the jail parking lot to report for his work
shift. Ludt, 36, reportedly was paid $20 to $50 for
each package he was to deliver. He is scheduled to go on trial May 8. The
county jail is run by CiviGenics Inc., a private
company hired by county commissioners. Escola said this type of activity
obviously will not be tolerated.
November 10, 2006 Youngstown Vindicator
Columbiana County Sheriff David Smith said he will try to stop a planned
pizza party for jail inmates during the upcoming Ohio State-Michigan football
game. "A jail is a jail," an angry Smith said. The sheriff
initially said there was no pizza party planned when approached Thursday by
The Vindicator. When shown a notice about the party given to inmates at the
privately run jail, Smith said, "There will be no party." Still,
Smith said he was not sure he can stop it. He said he is the only sheriff in
Ohio who does not control his county jail — it is run by CiviGenics
of Milford, Mass. The commissioners had received and filed an anonymous
letter and a copy of a notice to inmates. The items were postmarked Monday.
The Vindicator had also received information about the party. The notice to
all inmates from Warden Hank Escola says, "As we all know, the Ohio State/Michigan
game is filled with so much tradition that we must to do something to show
our support for the Buckeyes." The notice said inmates will each get
three slices of pizza in addition to their regular meals. Inmates who can't
eat pizza are to notify authorities so "we can make other
arrangements," according to the notice. In return, the notice says
inmates must keep their cells and living areas clean, keep the noise down
during the game, stop "horseplay and childish games" and "help
us to help you to have an easy time while you're here." The anonymous
letter to the commissioners asked, "Since when did we start to reward
inmates for crimes they commit and make their stay in jail easy? What are we
running, a jail or a resort?" The letter said that inmates had rioted in
September over the food and caused $4,000 in damage to the jail. Smith said
the damage was actually closer to $6,000. Five inmates have been charged in
the riot. In a separate, ongoing investigation, a civilian jailer and another
person have been charged with trying to smuggle drugs and contraband into the
jail. The jailer has been fired by CiviGenics. The
jail's food manager, who worked for a company under contract with CiviGenics, has been replaced.
September 14, 2006 Youngstown Vindicator
Columbiana County's financial situation is looking a little bit better as
the year winds down. Auditor Nancy Milliken said there is a chance the county
may end the year with $600,000 to $800,000 in cash and some unpaid bills.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel and Commissioner Gary
Williams estimated in July the county might have a year-end balance with up
to $1.2 million to start 2007. That forecast was based on the county's not
paying an estimated $1.1 million to $1.3 million in bills to CiviGenics Inc. this year. On Wednesday, commissioners
told CiviGenics, the company that runs the county
jail, they will continue to pay the company within 90 days of receiving each
monthly bill. Hoppel said that delaying payments
longer would cause financial problems for the Massachusetts-based company.
The county has paid CiviGenics for June, is about
to pay the July bill and hasn't received the bill for August.
August 12, 2006 Salem News
Columbiana County Jail operator CiviGenics
recently asked for "written assurances" that the county will pay
its bills for housing prisoners, regardless of what happens with the sales
tax. The company also warned the termination provision for ending the
contract could be reduced to 30 days and could be put into effect. "Any
plan to artificially reduce the county jail population will invoke CiviGenics rights to exercise a 30-day termination
provision," the letter from Chief Operating Officer Peter Argeropulos said. Commissioners received the letter last
month, a promised response to an earlier visit from Argeropulos,
who had asked the commissioners for an update on the county's money
situation. When commissioners approved the general fund appropriations for
this year, one area they shorted was the contract for CiviGenics,
predicting the shortage could leave them with $1 million to $1.5 million in
prisoner housing bills to pay with next year's funds, which they've said
could be even shorter. At this point, the county has paid all the bills to CiviGenics on time.
July 27, 2006 Vindicator
Columbiana County commissioners say better finances have reduced the county's
projected 2006 deficit. The commissioners said Wednesday that a variety of
factors went into the new calculations. Voters in November and May rejected a
0.5-percent sales tax that brings in about $4 million a year. The issue will
be on the November ballot. Commissioners Jim Hoppel
and Gary Williams estimate that the county may have a year-end balance of
$600,000 to $1.2 million with some unpaid bills. Commissioner Sean Logan's
more conservative estimates indicate the county may have about a $500,000
carryover with unpaid bills. The county needs a balance to fund operations at
the start of each year until taxes are collected. Both forecasts are based on
the idea that the county will not pay $1.1 million to $1.3 million in bills
for 2006. That includes about $800,000 the county expects to owe CiviGenics Inc., the company that runs the county jail,
and about $172,000 to the Multi-County Juvenile Attention System.
December 22, 2005 Morning Journal-News
County Commissioners breathed a sigh of relief Wednesday after approving the
requests by officeholders to appropriate the money they budgeted for each
office into the individual accounts. The one area that has the commissioners
concerned is the county jail. Last year, the county spent $491,273 during the
first quarter. The commissioners budgeted $570,000 for the first quarter of
2006. However, commissioners are concerned that this might not be enough.
Commissioners indicated that the county was charged $289,000 for the last
bill they received from Civigenics, the company
which operates the jail. This means that if that pattern continues, the money
appropriated will be only approximately two-thirds of the money needed to pay
for the jail.
September 22, 2005 The Review
With costs piling up for the hospitalization of murder defendant James Kovach
Jr., Columbiana County Commissioners took emergency action Wednesday to
reduce their financial liability. The commissioners approved a contract with
Maxim Healthcare of Boardman for a licensed practical nurse to cover times
when CiviGenics personnel aren't available at the
county jail, so Kovach can be transferred back to the jail. By law, counties
must carry the burden of medical costs for inmates in their care, which means
the county will have to pay for the hospitalization costs. As of Tuesday, the
total overtime accumulated by deputies manning the post exceeded $3,000. CiviGenics, the company running the county jail, has a
nursing staff, but doesn't have 24-hour-a-day coverage. Smith said the county
would have to cover the cost of a nurse to cover the empty shifts. Maxim
Nursing will cover Tuesday through Saturday at a cost of $1,424 at a rate of
$30 per hour on weekdays and $32 per hour for Friday and Saturday. The county
will also foot the bill for two nurses employed by CiviGenics
to work extra hours to cover Sundays and Mondays, at a cost of $360 at a rate
of $20 per hour.
November 9, 2004 Morning Journal
A malfunctioning door alarm and a loose section of fence were responsible for
the recent escape of an inmate from the Columbiana County Jail. Michael Mick,
27, Frischkorn Drive, Wellsville, escaped from the
minimum-security wing of the jail complex on Oct. 30 by exiting through a
door and then crawling under a section of fence. County Commission Chairman
Jim Hoppel toured the jail this week and discussed
the escape with officials from CiviGenics Inc., the
private company that operates the jail. Hoppel
learned that Mick exited the jail through a door which has a security alarm
to notify corrections officers when it has been opened. He said the alarm for
the door and another malfunctioned and did not alert the staff they had been
opened. Although outside the building, Mick still had to get out of the jail
compound, which is surrounded by security fence topped with razor wire. Hoppel
said the bottom of the fence is a tension cable that is supposed to be
secured to concrete pilings every eight feet, but Mick found a section of
fence where this was not done.
November 8, 2004 The Review
Some changes are to be made at the Columbiana County Jail as a result of a
recent escape. Commissioner Jim Hoppel met Monday
afternoon with officials of CiviGenics to discuss
some upcoming work. Hoppel said a person familiar
with installing fences is to be asked to inspect the area and make
recommendations on the fence. Hoppel also stated
two doors on which the alarms are not working properly will be repaired.
October 31, 2004 Morning Journal
An
inmate from the Columbiana County jail remains loose after escaping Friday
night with a suspected truck stolen for the getaway found near the escapee's
home. According to the incident report filed by Civigenics,
Mick was not located after a lockdown at 9:15 p.m. with a complete search of
the facility and a head count. Smith said the perimeter and surrounding
property was searched by deputies and jail employees.
October 25, 2004 The Review
Democrat sheriff candidate John Soldano offered his
own idea for keeping jail profits in Columbiana County, suggesting an
arrangement similar to the one used for public defender services. Last week
he challenged the $800,000 to $1 million savings touted by the county through
the jail contract with CiviGenics, telling county
commissioners he wanted to see the private company's revenue and expenditure
statement for himself to see if an alternative was possible. Soldano
said he didn't receive much information, at least not enough to verify the
savings, but he did note a net profit for CiviGenics
of $962,000 since June 2002, money which he said left the county
unnecessarily due to the lack of an alternate plan.
October 23, 2004 The Review
The Democratic candidate for Columbiana County Sheriff questioned the numbers
he received from county commissioners for jail operations, but Commissioner
Jim Hoppel said the numbers are what they are.
"That's what CiviGenics gave us," Hoppel said Friday. Leetonia Police Chief John Soldano, who's running against Republican incumbent Sheriff
David Smith, issued a written request earlier this week to Smith and the
three county commissioners asking for the annual revenues/expenditures
statement for CiviGenics, the private firm running
the county jail. Soldano said he wanted to study
the numbers for himself to see if the county's really saving the amount of
money reported or whether it was financially feasible for the sheriff's
office to operate the jail.
"I received some information from the commissioners, however, I'm not so
sure the information is accurate that I received," he said. According
to Soldano, the numbers weren't adding up from the
figures he had and they didn't seem 100 percent accurate.
Correctional Treatment Facility
Lucas County, Ohio
Aramark
March 18, 2005 Toledo Blade
Three Lucas County work-release inmates were taken to St. Vincent Mercy
Medical Center Wednesday after they ate food that contained what appeared to
be metal shavings. Two of the inmates were released from the hospital and
returned to the facility, 1111 Madison Ave. One was kept for unrelated
reasons, said Jean Atkin, county Common Pleas Court administrator. She said
work-release and the Correctional Treatment Facility, 1100 Jefferson Ave.,
receive food from the county jail, which contracts with Aramark for food
service. Treatment facility officials yesterday reported a similar problem,
but they thought the pieces were aluminum foil, Ms. Atkin said. She said no
one at the treatment facility ate the food, which was thrown away. Rick
Keller, corrections administrator, said he did not hear of any food
complaints in the jail. Ms. Atkin said a complaint was lodged with the food
provider. She said the contract with Aramark is up for renewal soon and that
there have been some concerns about the food service. Aramark officials could
not be reached for comment.
Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio
Stryker, Ohio
Correctional Medical Services
August 1, 2009 Toledo Blade
A Springfield Township psychologist whose security clearance was revoked
earlier this year by officials of the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio,was named in a lawsuit filed by a former inmate at
the Stryker facility. Wallace D. O'Shell was sued
Thursday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court by a woman who claimed she was
treated in an "improper manner." Specifically, Stephanie
Funkhouser, 31, claimed "inappropriate sexual conduct" and
"touching in an offensive manner." The lawsuit also alleged
Funkhouser's medications were withheld and that she was placed in solitary
confinement as a means of obtaining information from her. CCNO was also
listed as a defendant in the lawsuit. Mr. O'Shell
had been a contract employee who worked through the jail's Correctional
Medical Services since June, 2008. In March, CCNO
officials revoked his clearance and initiated an investigation into
Funkhouser's complaints. Yesterday, Jim Dennis, CCNO executive director, said
in a statement that the investigation was completed and Mr. O'Shell's clearance was permanently revoked. He added it
was determined Mr. O'Shell "violated CCNO
ethics policy, but there was nothing criminal in nature, according to the
Williams County Sheriff's Department." "Dr. O'Shell
admitted to investigators that he gave cash and letters to a female inmate,
which is in violation of CCNO policies," the statement said.
"Investigators were able to substantiate that there was no sexual
contact and no sexual conduct from the victim." According to CCNO
policy, "staff and inmates are not allowed to have sex or fraternize
with each other," an issue raised in a training session that Mr. O'Shell attended, the statement said. "He knew
better. Such behavior was not tolerated and his security clearance was
revoked," said Mr. Dennis. Funkhouser was sentenced to CCNO May 20 by
the Williams County Common Pleas Court for three counts of theft. She was
released June 22. Jail officials said the Ohio and Pennsylvania boards of
Psychology were contacted concerning possible discipline against Mr. O'Shell, although no further information was available
about the request. Linda Shambarger, manager of
inmate programs at CCNO, said the lawsuit had not yet been served on jail
officials.
March 6, 2009 Toledo Blade
Officials at the Corrections Center of Northwest Ohio say they’ve revoked
access to the regional jail for a contract employee after an inmate
complained of improper behavior. CCNO officials said the male employee, who
is a psychologist, admitted to giving cash and sending letters to a female
inmate. That was a violation of the jail’s fraternization and ethics
policies, which are covered in a handbook and an orientation video, they
said. A Williams County sheriff’s investigator is reviewing evidence in the
case, which remains under investigation. Authorities said they do not believe
a crime was committed. The employee had worked through the jail’s
Correctional Medical Services since June.
Coshocton County Justice Center
Coshocton, Ohio
Aramark
July 23, 2004
The new contract for the kitchen crew and the food they serve at the
Coshocton County Justice Center comes with good news and bad news. The
two cooks at the jail, Janet Swaney and Vickie
McKee, will keep their current salaries. However, the cooks will lose
insurance and retirement benefits through the county, and pay twice as much
for health insurance with the contracted company. Details of the
contract with Aramark were worked out with administrators at the sheriff's
office and the Coshocton County Commissioners. "We'll be
making our current wages, (but) we'll be losing out on several things,"
she said. "If you don't have a county job, you don't have the
retirement. What we've put (into our retirement), we'll get, but it won't
continue." (Coshocton Tribune)
Cuyahoga County Jail
Cuyahoga, Ohio
Extraditions International
September 12, 2001
A van transporting 12 prisoners from a Cuyahoga County jail to upstate New
York was hijacked Tuesday by one of the prisoners in a failed escape attempt,
police said. During a food stop, a guard and the driver of the van,
which was operated by Extraditions International, a private company, went
into a McDonald's restaurant, leaving a female guard to watch the
prisoners. Police said one of the prisoners, Lawrence Tutt, 32, of
Pueblo, Colo., overwhelmed the woman, jumped in the driver's seat and sped
off. Police were able to stop the van after a brief chase and take all
the prisoners into custody. (AP)
Franklin County Jail
Franklin, Ohio
Correctional Medical Services
March 7, 2002
Charles
Dials was carjacked while driving past the Franklin County Courthouse.
With a few phone calls, a doctor
at the Franklin County jail would have been warned that inmate
Alva Campbell might be faking his paralysis. That evidence was in a
deposition taken for a lawsuit filed by the family of Charles
Dials, whom Campbell killed during a 1997 escape. The family recently
settled for $1 million with the company that provided medical services
at the jail. The settlement between Dials' family and Correctional
Medical Services was recorded Monday in Franklin County Probate
Court. Campbell jumped out of a wheelchair as he was being brought to
the county courthouse on April 2, 1997, and overpowered a
deputy. The deputy had not handcuffed Campbell because she
thought he was a paraplegic. The hospital
treated Campbell for a gunshot wound suffered when a store manager shot
him during a robbery attempt. Common Pleas Judge Richard S.Sheward in November ruled in favor of Dials' family.
"This was a 1998 case
and Correctional Medical dragged its feet and ignored orders to
comply so I gave a default judgment to the plaintiff,'' Sheward
said. "It wasn't a complicated case, but it was a serious case of
a wrongful death of a young person who was executed.''
(The Dispatch)
Hamilton County Jail
Hamilton County, Ohio
Correctional Medical Services, Prisoner Transportation Services of America
Oct
2, 2019 cincinnati.com
Hamilton
County Justice Center was locked down as prisoners protested 'meager' food
Prisoner
outrage over "meager main courses" of food sparked multiple
disturbances at the jail last weekend, according to jail documents. Due to
the Sept. 21 incidents, the entire south building of the Hamilton County
Justice Center was locked down and at least three people were written up. It
started at dinner just before 6 p.m. "After finding that Aramark had
placed meager main courses on the trays, F Pod, G Pod and H Pod had, as a
whole, refused chow," Sgt. Nicholas Kilday
reported. "I had explained to the inmates...that I was on the phone
attempting to sort out this mess when they began voicing their displeasures
while in line...causing a group disturbance." Kilday
reported some of the inmates showed "aggressive behavior" prompting
him to call other corrections officers in for assistance. "For their
actions, F Pod will be locked in for the remainder of the day," Kilday reported. In B Pod, more prisoners were upset.
Deputy David Plemons reported that prisoner Michael Mann was disatisfied with his dinner tray and started telling all
the other inmates in the pod to refuse the food. Plemons tried to reason with
Mann, but Mann argued with the deputies and led others to turn down the meal,
according to jail reports. "For his attempts to incite the pod to an
uproar, (Mann) will be written up," Plemons wrote. During this time, two
more inmates, upset that phones were turned off, began breaking cleaning
supplies in their pod, records state. Due to the multiple disturbances, the
entire south building of the Justice Center was locked down, deputies said. Greivance forms were distributed to inmates to file
formal complaints as well. The Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, which
operates the Justice Center, complained to Aramark about the food. "We
received feedback that an item served on September 21st did not meet our high
standards and we took the necessary steps to ensure that it does not happen
again," the company wrote in a statement. "Our food safety
processes and procedures are industry leading. We maintain rigid standard
operating procedures for the entire flow of food production." In an
email exchange between the company and jail officials, Aramark apologized for
the "unfortunate mishap" stating the main entree meal "didn’t
thicken properly before it was served."
November 21, 2011 Local 12
The search is over for a prisoner who escaped from a private jail van during
a transfer. Cincinnati Police captured Jose Ramon Fernandez at noon today in
Mount Auburn. There were actually two men who escaped Sunday night around
11:30 p.m. They were being transferred in a private prison vehicle carrying
prisoners from around the country. Court documents indicate the men kicked
out the side door of the vehicle at Reading and Sycamore Streets -- right by
the jail. They had slipped out of their handcuffs. One of the prisoners, 36
year old Walter Rode of Dalton, Georgia, was caught about a block away but
overpowered the security person and continued to run. He was then tracked by
a police canine unit at 12th and Sycamore Streets-and rearrested. He's now
facing an escape charge.
November 21, 2011 Local 12
The search continues this morning for a prisoner who escaped from a private
jail van during a transfer. There were actually two men who escaped Sunday
night around 11:30 p.m. They were being transferred in a private prison
vehicle carrying prisoners from around the country. Court documents indicate
the men kicked out the side door of the vehicle at Reading and Sycamore
Streets -- right by the jail. They had slipped out of their handcuffs. One of
the prisoners, 36 year old Walter Rode of Dalton, Georgia, was caught about a
block away but overpowered the security person and continued to run. He was
then tracked by a police canine unit at 12th and Sycamore Streets-and
rearrested. He's now facing an escape charge. Officers say the second man,
Jose Ramon Hernandez of Fort Meyers, Florida, is still at-large. Officers have
not said what charges the men face originally. Court documents indicate
Hernandez was en route to a jail in Florida. Police
have not released a photo of Hernandez. Sheriff officials say the private
jail van was in Hamilton County to deliver an inmate from Newport, Kentucky
on drug charges. That prisoner was taken to the Hamilton County Justice
Center without incident.
March 17, 2006 Enquirer
Seeing her with her head shaved, it apparently was easy for Stacey
Erwin's co-workers to believe she was being treated for cancer, and they
wanted to help. But police say the 40-year-old Erwin, who worked as a nurse
at the Hamilton County Jail, does not have cancer, and they have charged her
with theft for taking more than $5,000 in donations. "She was telling people
she had brain cancer, and they were giving her money," Steve Barnett,
spokesman for the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, said Thursday. "One
of her co-workers got suspicious of her behavior." The sheriff's office
said Erwin, of West McMillan Street in Clifton Heights, obtained the money
from "numerous co-workers after leading them to believe she was
suffering from cancer." Erwin, who was arrested last week, was released
on her own recognizance pending her next court appearance. Barnett said Erwin
even convinced even her husband she had cancer, and he had unwittingly
accepted donations on her behalf. Money problems apparently prompted Erwin's
scam, Barnett said. Erwin, a contract employee, has been fired, Barnett said.
Erwin was employed by St. Louis-based Correctional Medical Services, which
provides medical personnel for jails around the country.
Lake Erie Correctional Institution
Conneaut, Ohio
CCA (formerly run by Management and Training Corporation)
Bombshell
in Conneaut: City police will be burdened with investigating prison crime:
October 11, 2011, MARK TODD The Star Beacon. SURPRISE: CCA deal not so
good for locals.
Sep
26, 2017 cleveland.com
Cleveland man says guard at private prison severely beat him
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man filed suit against a private prison in
Ashtabula County that says a guard beat him unconscious in 2016, and that the
beating was so severe that he required an emergency medical procedure on his
brain. A surveillance camera at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in
Conneaut captured part of the incident at the center of Timothy Davis'
lawsuit. However, most of the beating that he says he endured at the hands of
prison guard Aaron Lawrence was not captured on camera after another staff
member opened a door and blocked most of the action. Ashtabula County
Prosecutor Nicholas Iarocci's office presented a
case against Lawrence to a grand jury, which declined to charge him with a
crime. Davis, 31, filed his lawsuit in federal court in Cleveland last week.
The suit names private prison owner CoreCivic,
Warden Brigham Sloan, Lawrence, fellow guard Laurie Typinski
and other staff members as defendants. CoreCivic
owns the Conneaut institution and contracts with the state to house inmates.
Davis, who is serving a 13-year prison sentence for burglary and theft
convictions in Cuyahoga County says that on Sept. 21, 2016 a guard falsely
accused him of making a disparaging comment. That led Lawrence to take Davis
to an isolation cell, or "the hole," according to the lawsuit.
Lawrence handcuffed Davis' hands behind his back and walked Davis down a
hallway, the lawsuit says. Davis said that he asked Lawrence to see a captain
and complained that he didn't do anything wrong. The suit says he was never
combative. Typinski approached, and while Davis
protested, Lawrence said: "Oh, you want to be a f-----g hardass?" the lawsuit says. Lawrence pulled Davis
away from the wall and shoved him up against it. He threw Davis down and
smashed his head into the ground until Davis was unconscious, according to
the lawsuit. Typinski did not intervene but instead
opened a door "so that the surveillance camera cannot capture any more
of Lawrence's violent attack on Davis," the lawsuit says. In the
surveillance footage, made publicly available by Davis'
attorney Paul Cristallo, the action is seen from a
distance as the camera is positioned on the other side of the hallway. A
guard pushed an inmate identified as Davis, who doesn't appear to be
combative. A female prison staff member opens the door, and what happens next
is not visible in the footage. At one point, Davis sits up while on the
ground. A prison staff member brings over a wheelchair, several prison staff
members lift Davis into it and he's wheeled away. Davis says in his lawsuit
that he was later flown to a hospital and underwent a procedure that involves
removing part of the skull to help reduce swelling on his brain. When the
Ohio State Highway Patrol opened an investigation, the some prison staff members
give inconsistent statements and others lied to investigators, the lawsuit
says. Lawrence told a trooper that Davis was combative and tried to reach for
an area on his belt where his keys are located. He said he brought Davis to
the ground to "gain compliance," according to the suit. None of the
guards were ever disciplined, and the force was ruled justified, the lawsuit
says. Iarocci says an Ashtabula County grand jury
heard a lot of evidence before deciding against indicting Lawrence. He said
he never makes recommendations to grand juries on whether to charge a
suspect. "I'm grateful there's a video," Cristallo
said in a statement Monday. "Without visual proof, prisoners have
virtually no chance of finding justice. But in Tim's case, even with a video
they found in Lawrence's favor and had no problem with Typinski
blocking the camera. Tim Davis was almost killed and not one of them had the
courage to stand up for what's right. It shouldn't take a corpse for someone
to speak up." CoreCivic spokeswoman Amanda Sluss Gilchrist said in an email that "CoreCivic is committed to the safety and well-being of
all individuals entrusted to our care. As a general policy, we do not comment
on pending litigation, including litigation which has not yet been
served." The lawsuit says Davis' constitutional rights were violated and
that the prison company failed to train and supervise the guards. Davis, who
is now in the Trumbull Correctional Institution, is asking for an unnamed
amount in damages. The case is assigned to Senior U.S. District Judge Donald
Nugent.
Sep 30, 2016 starbeacon.com
Family of inmate says LaECI corrections officer
caused serious injuries
CONNEAUT — A Lake Erie Correctional Institution inmate was flown from the
prison to a hospital for emergency brain surgery last week because of a brain
hemorrhage his family says was caused by a corrections officer. The Ohio
State Highway Patrol and the prison are investigating whether an officer used
excessive force to restrain a reportedly “disruptive” inmate. The inmate,
Timothy Davis, 30, formerly of Richfield, is serving a 13-year sentence in
the Conneaut prison on burglary and related charges. On Sept. 21, a
corrections officer, who has not been named, reportedly slammed Davis against
a wall while he was in handcuffs, causing serious brain injuries and bursting
his left eardrum, making him deaf in that ear, according to his family. He
was released the day after his emergency brain surgery at an unspecified
hospital. “The inmate was being disruptive so they had to take him into
segregation,” said OHP trooper Michael Royko, who’s
handling the state investigation. “At one point, the CO did have to use force
to restrain the inmate. “We’re trying to get to the bottom of what happened
and what caused that injury,” he said. “Use of force can be anything from
resulting in no injury to something like this.” Davis’
attorney, Paul Cristallo of Cleveland, claims Davis
was in handcuffs when the CO slammed him up against a wall, but what prompted
the physicality is still unclear. He’s awaiting the state’s evidence before
deciding whether to pursue legal action on Davis’ behalf. “I want to see the
video and I’d like to hear what the CO’s excuse was,” he told the Star
Beacon. Davis’ aunt, Nancy Stiver-Ash, also of Richfield — who said she’s
cared for Davis like a mother for years — said she expected the prison to
claim he was being aggressive, “but that’s a lie.” “He’s not a violent kid.
Any time he’s been in prison, he’s never fought a guard — never in his life,”
she told the Star Beacon the day after the incident. Stiver-Ash said medical
officials from the prison kept her family apprised of Davis’ condition, but
about little else relating to the incident. She said she met with Davis in
the prison Thursday — for the first time since he was hospitalized. “He looks
really bad,” with staples stretching from his ear to the top of his head, she
said. “It broke my heart and I had to keep the tears from coming down. “He’s
still a human being. He’s still a person. There’s just no excuse to do that
to somebody who was handcuffed.” Royko said he’s
currently reviewing prison surveillance footage from the Sept. 21 incident.
He said he expects to have his investigation wrapped next week. When Cristallo met with Davis at the prison earlier this week,
he said the man’s injuries were pronounced. “Assuming he (was) in handcuffs —
and I don’t think that’s being disputed — there’s no excuse for using this
kind of force against somebody,” he said. A state Department of
Rehabilitation and Corrections spokesperson confirmed investigations are
underway through OHP and the prison, and the department will review the
findings, but gave no other information. “I really do have faith the state is
going to be objective and get to the bottom of this,” Cristallo
said. Lake Erie Correctional Institution has been privately owned and
operated since 2012 by Corrections Corporation of America, based in
Tennessee. Jonathan Burns, CCA director of public affairs, declined to give
explicit comment on the incident until the investigation concludes, except to
say the organization is taking it “very seriously” and cooperating with the
OHP investigator. “CCA is committed to the well-being of every individual in
our care,” he wrote in an email. “We have a zero tolerance policy regarding
excessive use of force among employees. All CCA correctional officers receive
extensive training on the safe, humane and appropriate use of force when
circumstances make it absolutely necessary.” If Davis serves his entire
sentence, he will be set for release in 2027, Cristallo
said. “I’m worried about my kid — if he comes out of this OK,” Stiver-Ash
said. “I’ve got to worry about his life now. He committed a crime, but you
don’t have to treat him like an animal.”
Apr 8, 2016 sidneydailynews.com
ACLU suit: Inmate at private Ohio prison denied hearing aids
CLEVELAND (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio is suing the
state prisons department for not providing two functional hearing aids to a
hearing-impaired inmate at Lake Erie Correctional Institution. A lawsuit
filed Thursday in federal district court in Cleveland alleges the Department
of Rehabilitation and Correction’s statewide policy of providing only one
hearing aid to inmates is unconstitutional and violates the Americans with
Disabilities Act. The ACLU says inmate James Handwork’s hearing was damaged
during Army service in the 1980s, requiring a hearing aid in each ear. His current
hearing aids no longer work and can’t be repaired. The suit contends the
prison, owned by Corrections Corporation of America since 2012, should
provide both replacements. It calls the state policy arbitrary. A message
seeking comment was left with the department.
Feb 12,, 2016 woub.org
Ohio High Court: Sale Of Prison OK Under State Constitution
The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled the sale of the Lake
Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut to Nashville-based Corrections
Corporation of America in 2011 did not violate the state constitution. It was
the first state prison in the nation to be sold to a private company. A
lawsuit by several former prison employees and the union representing state
employees challenged the sale alleging it violated a prohibition against
state financial involvement with private enterprise. The justices also ruled the Ohio Employee
Relations Board has jurisdiction to determine whether employees of privately
owned or operated prisons are considered public employees.
Jun
5, 2015 rt.com
Private prisons bribe judges to jail more inmates – ex-prison guard speaks
out
Incarceration,
for some, is a pure tragedy; for others, a burden on taxpayers’ wallets. And
yet, there are those who make billions of dollars from the grim industry of
private prisons. The US government praises them as a way to ease expenditure,
a blessing for the community and inmates – but is that really so? Reports
have been describing incompetence, corruption and abuse rife in such
privately-owned facilities. To find out what the state of affairs is in such
prisons, we decided to ask the man who saw it all with his own eyes – from
inside the belly of the beast. Paul Reynolds, former corrections officer at
the privately owned Lake Erie prison, is on Sophie&Co.
Sophie Shevardnadze: Paul Reynolds, former corrections officer at the
privately owned Lake Erie prison, now activist against for-profit prisons –
welcome to the show, it’s great to have you with us. Now, Paul, communities
across the U.S. want to minimize costs and gain more money by handing over
control of their prisons to private companies. How does it happen that more
prisoners mean more profit? Paul Reynolds: First off, thank you for having
me. When you can have more bodies in prison, obviously, you’re going to make
more money off of them, cutting costs, doing anything you can; basically,
you’re treating this people as chattel in a way to make profit off of them.
SS: But if a bigger prison population means bigger profits why would anyone
want to rehabilitate anybody at all?
PR: They wouldn’t, and that’s exactly what happened when took over a prison.
A lot of rehabilitation programs went out of the window; it became a
warehouse for inmates, kind of a modern-day slaver if you will.
SS: Can you elaborate on that? I mean, I’d like to hear a little bit more
about it.
PR: I guess, why they would want to have more inmates in prisons – to
increase their bottom line. It basically becomes an assembly-line form of
justice. You get them into system, get them in prisons, and you’re
warehousing them, you keep them there and you charge the state as much as you
can for them and put very little back in return to those inmates. Basically,
there’s no rehabilitation when it comes to privatization like this.
SS:
But if things are as bad as you say, why does the government put trust in
private prison operators? What’s in it for the officials?
PR:
I’m sure that they’re getting money back. The state is doing anything they
can to save money – I don’t think they did the time to take the research to
do this, so for the States to do this… they’re trying to put money in their
coffers as well.
SS:
Now, the prison you were working in, Lake Erie, it was purchased by the
Correction Corporation of America, a company that owns private prison. It was
purchased for 73 million dollars. How much revenue does it make, that it’s
actually willing to pay that much for a prison?
PR:
I don’t have that number off the top of my head, I’m sure we can look that up
and find it, but they were making a lot of money from what they told us… Once
again, I just don’t have the answer for the numbers…
SS:
But do you have, like, an approximate ration or something?
PR:
I would say that with the way they cut programs, I would easily have to say
their revenue or the amount that was spent on those inmates dropped by… as an
estimate here, I would say, by 30% or more.
SS:
Because it does sound like it’s a profit for the local taxpayers, if
somebody’s willing to pay that much money for a prison. Is it a benefit for
the people, do you think?
PR:
First off, I think the reason they spent that kind of money on a prison is
because they wanted to make this a flagship and show other states… I think they
overpaid on this prison, and a lot of people will agree with me on that. I
want to say that they overpaid so that they can have the first one in the
country, you know, if you’re the first one in the country, everybody’s going
to have their eyes on you, and it became a miserable failure, obviously, as
we’ve seen, and that’s why I think other states have backed away from
contracts with them – because they saw it did not do the way they
anticipated. I think they came in here with this idea that they were going to
make things the best they could and spend all this money and show how big and
grandiose they were, and obviously, it was an epic failure.
SS:
Now, CCA says it provides “safe, secure housing and quality rehabilitation
programming – and significant savings to taxpayers”. Well, the profits of a
prison company come from taxpayer’s money being paid to them for running
prisons. So, are municipalities and states really saving money?
PR:
No. I would say that they were basically taking advantage of that situation.
They’re going to come in and take as much from the taxpayer as they can, and
when you say that they provide “safe housing” – I can attest that that’s
absolutely not the case. You saw the documentary, I mean, it was, it was…
within three months, really, we lost control of that prison, because of their
“safe standards” if you will.
SS:
We’re going to talk a bit about that in just a little while, but I want to
bring to your attention a report by In the Public that revealed something
shocking: it says that Arizona and Colorado, for instance, strike deals with
private prisons and the state is obliged to keep its prisons filled up to
100% or taxpayers have to pay the private prisons for any empty beds. So,
people actually have to pay for dropping crime rates? I mean, how’s that even
possible?
PR:
That’s… you’re absolutely not dropping crime rates by doing that. You’re
going to take somebody who smokes marijuana – let’s be honest, that’s not a
very crime-worthy thing, a lot of people do it, police officers do it, who
arrest these people and put them in jail – but when the state can say “Hey,
you’re going to make $2 and you’re give us a dollar back for every inmate we
give you”… That’s sounds like they don’t care. Once again, people become
chattel as a way of making money for the state and for the private prisons.
Of course, they’re going to want to keep it open.
SS:
So are you saying that people are actually getting nabbed for wrong reasons
to fill up the quotas? Is that correct?
PR:
Absolutely.
SS:
Did you witness that personally?
PR:
I saw some of the inmates they brought in, within the first two months… I
don’t remember exactly when, within first 2 or 4 months, we had an increase
of, like, 500 inmates. Some of these were inmates who were high-level
troublemaking inmates, if you will, they had a higher security level, and
they came and we were completely unprepared for that; but CCA didn’t care,
they just want all the bodies. They, basically, took any of the inmates that
other prisons did not want.
SS:
Also, there was a big scandal a while back, the “kids for cash” affair, when
a private prison company bribed a county judge to stuff their juvenile
prisons with youths. Does having a private prison in an area corrode the
judicial process?
PR:
Absolutely. I believe the “cash for kids” was in Pennsylvania, not too far
from where I am at, and you saw what happened: I believe that judge received
20 years in prison. If I’m in a position of power to make money off of
something, whether it’s gold or silver or people – yeah, I would say it
corrodes. I mean, if I can put thousand people in your prison, and you’re
going to pay me a million dollars – I don’t care who I put away, I’m the
judge! Yeah, it absolutely would corrode.
SS:
I want to talk a bit more about your personal experience in that private
prison. For those who haven’t seen the documentary, working at the facility,
you said that you lost a prison to the inmates that you were scared for your
life – why did that happen?
PR:
CCA came in and had a hands-off policy on inmates. The state of Ohio allowed
us to use force when necessary to deal with inmates. Now, make no mistake –
inmates run every prison. They are always in control, there’s 3-to-1 ratio of
inmates to security; but, there’s always this balance of force. The inmates
know we can come in and do what we need to do to gain order. CCA said “No,
you don’t ever touch an inmate, you don’t ever deal with an inmate in that
way, you don’t even use harsh language with an inmate”. It only took inmates
a few months to realize that we couldn’t do our job.
SS:
Why not?
PR:
Because they were afraid of getting sued. CCA was afraid that if we hurt an
inmate, they might get sued and lose money out of their profit.
SS:
They were afraid that they would be sued by inmates?
PR:
That’s correct, yes.
SS:
Okay, but the prison had added hundreds of prisoners after having been
privatized. Were there vacant spots to fill? How did that happen?
PR:
Like I’ve said, they would bring these inmates in, by a busload, to meet
their contract requirements to keep that prison at 97%, I believe – I don’t
remember specific percentage. They just brought them in, whoever would send
them an inmate – they would take him, regardless of what this inmate’s crime
was or his security level.
SS:
You know, I’ve read that inmates in private prisons actually beg for solitary
confinement for security reasons – how bad is the violence in these
facilities? I mean, can you be detailed in your description?
PR:
Yeah, just like I was saying. These inmates realized that we could not
control them if we needed to, and inmates realized that we weren’t going to
protect other inmates. We had a huge increase of inmates trying to go on“segregation” as we call it - to stay safe, and the
inmates took control completely. They knew we weren’t going to do what we
needed to do, and the power balance went from here to here, and it was all in
their favor. There was a huge increase of drug activity, violent crimes…
SS:
But why were you scared for your life?
PR:
Because, I was afraid that if I defended myself, I might get thrown in jail.
SS:
Okay, so go ahead, finish about the inmates being scared for their lives…
PR:
…I was also afraid to lose my job. I have a family to support, I have a child
to take care of. But these inmates, when they realized, you know, we weren’t
going to use force on them, it was a free-for-all. Inmates were getting their
heads bashed in, I used to take them to a hospital. Inmates were constantly
fighting, they were robbing each other, extorting each other, it was the Wild
West if you will.
SS:
Now, you’ve mentioned private prisoners being afraid of lawsuits – why aren’t
state prisons afraid of law suits?
PR:
I think that’s one of the problems with the States, when they run prisons.
They overspend, and there’s obviously always has been deficit when it comes
to state running anything – that’s government for you. I think the lawsuits
are easier settled, but you’ve got to remember, we’re dealing with government
entity versus a private company, who pays insurance and has liability and
things of that nature, so… why was their policy specifically like that? I
don’t know, but I think it’s a fear of them losing their profits. They’ve got
to make money for the shareholders. If they’re not making their shareholders
happy, they’re not getting new business, not getting into other states, and
make this type of money.
SS:
What I wonder is why aren’t the state prisons just as afraid of lawsuits from
inmates, as are private prisons, like you’ve said?
PR:
My theory on that is probably because they have a direct pipeline to the
justice system. Inmates, who act up in those prisons are probably more likely
to face legal ramifications for it. I also think the States also believe
there’s always an unlimited supply of money and, you know, I guess, it also
goes back to the balance of power thing I said. These inmates in state
prisons are less likely to act up, because they know they might get hurt,
corrections officer might have to do things to them that might be unpleasant
in order to gain compliance. So, once again, there’s much more balance of
power in the state-run facility that there is in a private facility. When you
tell us that we cannot put our hands on an inmate to gain compliance, if
necessary, you give them all the power.
SS:
Tell me something: do private prisons pay less to guards than state prisons?
Is there a problem of staff turnover at a private prison?
PR:
To address the turnover issue, there’s turnover in any industry, prisons
definitely don’t escape that. In a private run facility – yeah, we were
making $5-6 less than a state correctional officer would. Now, I can speak
for a prison I worked at and some of ones that I know in local area, I can’t
answer that on a nation-wide level, that could be a state thing, that could
be, you know, where are those prisons located, is there enough money to pay
these people, but generally speaking, yeah, they’re going to pay less,
because that affects their bottom line.
SS:
Another thing that struck me is how you said that you were punished for
trying to do your job – how so?
PR:
I had to use force on an inmate. I had several of those and they all were
found to be justified. I have a degree in Criminal Justice and I did a lot of
study on use of force, now there’s a use of force continuum that any police
officer, any corrections officer, anybody involved with that has to follow,
and they’re pretty specific by the state, and I was pretty well-aware of how
it went. I dealt with this inmate and I had to use force on him to take him
to the ground. I received two days of suspension for that, and that was one
of the first uses of force where somebody was actually punished and that’s
when inmates started to know: “Hey, these guys cannot do what they need to
do!”.
SS:
What else was wrong with the private prison you were in? You’ve said before
there was lack of medication and inmates sleeping on floors… If a public
prison could provide all that, why couldn’t the private prison?
PR:
I could go on for hours when you’re asking me what was wrong with it, but
I’ll try to minimize this here. Let’s address the medication issue: when CCA
came in, the private company who ran the prison, but did not own it, had a
system set up in place: everything was computerized, inmates walked in, they
got the medication and left. When CCA came in, they thought: “We’re not going
to do all this, and we have all this technology, and we’re bringing all this,
all this money – and they didn’t have a computer! When inmates are going to
pick up their medicine, the company was like “we don’t know where’s the
inmate medicine at”, they’ll yell at the doctors and nurses, and, you know,
they came in and in one minute at midnight everything changed over.
Everything we had before went out of the window. They came totally unprepared
to do some of the most basic things. Medical is very important part of the
prison, as I’ve stated in the documentary, you have some inmates who need
some psychotic medication, and if they don’t get it, things get ugly.
SS:
What about just other living conditions – I mean, you know, there was also
the thing about inmates sleeping on the floor. What, were the beds taken out
of the rooms, or the cells, once the prison became private, or what?
PR:
First off, this prison didn’t have cells per se; they were dormitory-style
areas, housing areas…
SS:
So were beds taken out of the dormitories?
PR:
No, beds were added to spaces that were normally used for common area, like a
common area, quiet room, if you will. They converted those, put beds there.
Very-very cramped. There was only about this much space between beds before
they moved in, and they narrowed it down to probably like this, you got it
right on top of people. So, they added beds. The answer about the sleeping on
the floor – that was in segregation. Those cells were meant to hold 2 people
at time, and they were housing 3 at a time. You got two beds, three people –
somebody’s got to sleep on the floor, and inmates dictate who does that.
SS:
What else was the most troubling thing that you witnessed there, except for
lack of medication and inmates sleeping on the floor because there was not enough beds for everybody?
PR:
The most troubling thing I saw was the fact of seeing other corrections
officers scared to do their jobs, to stand there when incident happens, a
fight happens, and officer kind of stand there and go on like this, like
“what do I do?” That’s scary, because those are people you have to rely on
backing up if something happens. If I’m getting my rear-end kicked in by an
inmate, I hope somebody would step up, but people were asking questions: “Can
I do that, or what’s going to happen to me and my job?”. It kind of became
“Hey, we’re got to watch ourselves first for our own job”.
SS:
So, how does a company spend all of that money on purchasing prison and then
can’t provide basic service? Is it incompetence or simply cost-cutting?
PR:
I would say it was incompetence. These people came in - and the top five
management there, if you will, are the warden, deputy warden and etc. – they came in here and: “We’re going to do it
our way. This is how we’re going do it, and we don’t care what you have to
say”. They came in with this attitude that they knew it all, but they had no
idea. Have they run prisons? Absolutely, okay. But each prison is different.
We know those inmates, we know how that prison runs, and they come in and
say: “We’re going to do it our way or if you don’t like it – too bad” – you
saw the result of that.
SS:
Now did the inmate behavior change after the conditions worsened like you described?
PR:
Like I said, it became a free-for-all. The inmates, they just took over and
they extorted other inmates and it was out, in the open, the fighting
increased. I had plenty of inmates come to me, that I had good rapport with…
you know, this is very awkward type of job to be in, you have to have certain
personality – and there’s a lot of inmates that had a lot of respect with and
good rapport, and they would come to me and say they were scared for their
lives. I’ve run into inmates that have gotten out since I’ve been no longer
there and they’ve said: “Oh my God, it’s got so bad!”. I departed from there
shortly after, within 6 months, and things there got really bad after that
first year. It got worse after I left, so I can only imagine what some of
those inmates were thinking and saying, but the ones that came to me were
very scared and very worried about themselves.
SS:
Is there anything you could do for them when they were coming and praying for
help?
PR:
Not really. I can tell them to request to go to a different dorm, you could
go to segregation – we call it “checking in” – they could do that, but no,
there’s not much I can do for them. They’re grown men, they have to live
their lives and they have to kind of do things as grown men. But, no, basically
forward them to their guidance counselor, if you will, or sergeants or just
the upper management – let them to try to handle
it.
SS:
Paul, you know, the picture you’re painting is pretty gloomy. So, why is
management of private prison neglecting order and control over inmates?
Especially, like you say, they are actually afraid of lawsuits from inmates?
PR:
There’s a reason why 6 out of the top-7 managers that were there are no
longer there. I go back to “incompetence”. They came in there with this “mightier-than-thou”
attitude and it failed miserably. I think once the state had to come back in
and basically tell them: “you’re going to do it the way we had it set up to
do to begin with” – that prison has run for 12 years without real, major,
serious incident or major, serious problems. Every prison has a problem, they
all are going to have issues, but to the magnitude of what happened when they
took over in the first 18 months? Yeah, that’s them coming in not knowing
what’s going on, not taking the advice of the people who’ve been there and,
of course, they’re trying to implement their system, because that’s how
they’re going to make money for their shareholders.
SS:
According to a study by Chris Petrella, a doctoral candidate at the
University of California, Berkeley, people of color are more likely to serve
time in private prisons than in public ones. Do private prisons’ lobbies
target black and Hispanic populations? Did you see more inmates of color?
PR:
You know, that’s one of those statistics I’ve seen different ways, they talk
about African-Americans disproportionally placed in prison – I don’t know the
statistics off-hand, to be honest with you, I haven’t researched them in
probably two years…
SS:
No, when you were the prison officer, you saw the inmates that were there
under your control – were there more Hispanic and African-Americans than
white prisoners?
PR:
I would say there’s pretty good homogenous mix. There might have been a
slight percentage, if we’re talking, maybe 55% African-American, and another
45% would make up Hispanic, white.
SS:
You know, also juveniles are predominantly placed in private prisons, and
according to the latest survey or investigation published in Huffington Post,
they actually face sexual abuse, also neglect, insanitary food – how does
that encourage youngsters to actually come out and be clean and lead a good
life?
PR:
Unfortunately, most of the inmates who come in there, juveniles, they
probably come out worse than when they went in, especially into a private
prison, when there’s really no rehabilitation going on there. It’s a training
ground for them. We have shock programs here, in the States, where you send
juveniles to boot camps and show them what prison life is really like, but
ultimately, I hate to say this, it comes back on the communities to try and
change this behavior. These inmates, these juveniles who come in prison, 95%
of them come out worse off than when they went it.
SS:
Paul, thank you very much for this interview, for this very sad insight on
private prisons in America. We were talking to Paul Reynolds, former
correction officer at a private prison, activist against for-profit jails,
discussing the privatization of incarceration in the U.S. and its’
consequences. That’s it for this edition of Sophie&Co,
I will see you next time.
May
21, 2015 ohio.com
COLUMBUS:
The status of the nation’s first privately-owned state prison was debated in Ohio
on Wednesday, as litigation brought on behalf of union workers displaced by
the historic sale was argued before the state’s high court. Arguments before
the Ohio Supreme Court came in a suit the Ohio Civil Service Employees
Association, a group of individuals and the liberal think tank ProgressOhio brought against the state after Republican
Gov. John Kasich and the GOP-controlled state Legislature passed a biennial
budget bill authorizing the 2011 sale of Lake Erie Correctional Facility in
Conneaut, and placing a second state prison under private management. The
union argues that placing the privatization plan in the budget violated the
Ohio Constitution’s single-subject rule for legislation. State attorneys
contend the plan rightly belonged in a budget bill because it raised revenue
for Ohio’s coffers and cut operational costs from the state prisons budget. A
trial court dismissed the case, but the Tenth District Court of Appeals
allowed a single argument brought by the civil service union, prison workers
and the liberal advocacy group to move forward: that the 3,000-page budget
bill contained more than one subject. The state appealed, facing the prospect
of future budget bills — which contain the most sweeping policy changes of
any legislative session — being subject to line-by-line scrutiny. Justices
accepted the appeal in June. Prior to the Lake Erie prison’s sale, state
lawmakers had enacted legislation in the mid-1990s that allowed the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction to contract with private
companies for the operation and management of its prisons, as long as at
least 5 percent was saved compared to state costs. The budget passed in 2011,
Kasich’s first, went further — including non-permanent language that allowed
up to five state prisons to be sold outright. At the time, the state was
facing a projected deficit approaching $8 billion following the national
recession. The state ultimately found a buyer for only one. Lake Erie
Correctional Facility was sold to Corrections Corporation of America in
December 2011 for nearly $73 million and contracted with the company to run
it. The state also hired Management and Training Corporation as part of the
same deal plan to operate the state-owned North Central Correction
Institution in Marion. Embedded in the civil service union’s legal challenge
is the suggestion that the privatization plan wasn’t about money, but about
reducing jobs represented by organized labor. They have argued that money the
state pays CCA to operate the prison — including $29 million in management
fees each year, plus annual ownership fees of nearly $4 million — will
eventually completely negate the revenue generated by selling the prison.
They name 11 individuals who lost prison jobs and list others to whom the
privatization meant pay cuts, long commutes, lost seniority and lost
retirement coverage. In its filings, the state said any item seen to
“rationally affect the state budget and operations” should be allowed to be
included in a state budget. It raised particular issue with the Tenth
District’s request for the trial court to review the entire budget and
conduct a line-by-line review to excise offending passages. Besides the
prison provisions, the bill contained hundreds of passages, including some
limiting abortion access. “These holdings cast a cloud over vital
legislation, and leave the General Assembly in the dark on what it may
include in future bills making appropriations,” the state wrote.
Apr 10, 2015 news-herald.com
Three
people, two of them corrections officers, face felony methamphetamine charges
after arrests by the Geauga County Sheriff’s Office. On April 8, sheriff’s
detectives conducting a drug investigation allegedly saw 27-year-old Timothy
R. Winters, of Hambden Township, trying to hide a
“one pot” methamphetamine lab at 15720 Pioneer Road in Huntsburg
Township, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office. After
getting a search warrant, detectives allegedly found four “one pot” labs in
the home, the release stated. Winters and Brandon D. Inghram,
24, of Huntsburg, were arrested and charged with
second-degree felony illegal manufacturing of drugs, according to the
release. Sarah B. Stafford, 27, of Dorset Township in Ashtabula County, also
was arrested and charged with second-degree felony complicity to illegal
manufacturing of drugs, according to the release. Winters and Stafford are
employed as corrections officers at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in
Conneaut, the release stated. Lake Erie is privately owned and operated by
Corrections Corporation of America. A call to the warden of the institution
was not immediately answered. Three people, including two corrections
officers, face meth charges.
Mar
8, 2014 The Columbus Dispatch
Gov.
John Kasich and statewide officeholders are asking the Ohio Supreme Court to
kill an unprecedented court-ordered, line-by-line review of the previous
state budget to determine whether parts of it should be invalidated. The
appeal says the order requiring a trial-court judge to conduct an evidentiary
hearing to dissect the 3,000-plus-page budget bill and its hundreds of
changes in state law would illegally amount to “judicial line-item vetoes.”
The Franklin County Court of Appeals ordered the review in finding that
lawmakers violated the “ one subject/one bill”
provision in the Ohio Constitution by inserting a prison privatization
measure in the $55.8 billion 2012-13 budget. The appellate judges ordered
Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick E. Sheeran, who had previously dismissed the
case, to review the budget and strike “fraudulent” sections that violate the
one-subject requirement. The budget addressed such diverse matters as
abortion restrictions, teacher merit pay, a gambling hot line, barber
licenses and court testimony by coroners. The state’s appeal argues that
previous court rulings have upheld the legality of the budget’s hosting a
laundry list of money-related policy changes and that inviting judicial
review of lawmakers’ choices violates the separation of powers. The appellate
ruling “casts a cloud over vital legislation and leaves the General Assembly
in the dark on what it may include in future bills including appropriations,”
the appeal states. The Ohio Supreme Court has not yet decided whether it will
accept the state’s appeal, filed on Monday. The Court of Appeals decided
unanimously on Oct. 28 to overturn part of Sheeran’s dismissal of a 2012 case
filed by the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association and Progress Ohio over
a budget section to privatize and sell some prisons. The three-judge panel
ruled that the prison-privatization language championed by Kasich and
Republican legislators was inserted in the budget for “no rational reason,”
in violation of the constitutional one-subject mandate. The section is
designed to prevent lawmakers from trading votes on each other’s bills and to
prevent “riders” from being attached to legislation sure to pass. As a result
of the budget law, the state sold the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in
Conneaut to Corrections Corp. of America for $72 million and allowed another
company to run the North Central Correctional Institution in Marion. The
union sought damages for employees who lost jobs and invalidation of the
private-prison contracts, returning both prisons to state control or
ownership. OCSEA spokeswoman Sally Meckling called
the ruling significant, saying lawmakers long have abused the process by
inserting controversial matters into budget bills to shield them from
separate and in-depth scrutiny. Brian Rothenberg, executive director of ProgressOhio, said, “This would have a major impact on
how we govern because no longer will you be able to take controversial items
that appeal to campaign contributors and friends and lump them in with a
larger budget issue.” Kasich spokesman Rob Nichols said the governor’s office
does not comment on pending lawsuits. The appeal contends that the prison
language was budget-related and brought in money for the state and that the
entire budget should not be subjected to review simply because one section
was found legally dubious. “A broad challenge to the entire budget bill fails
if it has a common budgetary purpose, and trial courts have no authority to
strike out provisions completely unrelated to the case in question,” the
filing states.
Oct
25, 2013 citybeat.com
New
audit of Lake Erie facility finds improvements, but some problems linger. A
re-inspection of the privatized Lake Erie Correctional Institution (LECI)
found the prison is “heading in a positive direction,” but the facility is
still on pace in 2013 to maintain increased levels of violence similar to the
year before, according to the report. In 2011, LECI became the first state
prison in the country to be sold to a private company after Ohio, under the
urging of Gov. John Kasich, sold the facility to Corrections Corporation of
America (CCA) as a cost-cutting measure. Since then, multiple inspections
found deteriorating health and safety conditions that anti-privatization
critics warned of prior to the sale. The audit, published on Oct. 8 but
conducted on Sept. 9 and 10, comes from the Correctional Institution
Inspection Committee (CIIC), Ohio’s independent prison watchdog. The
inspection was announced beforehand, unlike the unannounced audit on Jan. 22
that found a sharp rise in violence and various health problems. In other
words, CCA had time to prepare for the latest inspection but not the one
conducted earlier in the year, which could explain some of the mixed
improvements. “The CIIC inspection team’s overall sense is that conditions
have improved,” the report claimed. “CCA has poured significant resources
into the prison, including removing or changing staff, hiring on former (Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction) staff, investing in additional
security measures, and bringing in outside consultants.” But for all the
improvements, CIIC found issues of safety, security and inmate discipline
linger: “Although improved slightly, the percentage of inmates reporting that
they feel unsafe or very unsafe is still high.” CIIC found inmate-on-inmate
and inmate-on-staff assaults remain on track to match 2012’s higher levels of
violence. The previous CIIC audit found inmate-on-inmate violence had
increased by 188 percent and inmate-on-staff violence had increased by more
than 300 percent between 2010 and 2012. Staff reportedly told inspectors that
there was “significant progress” in rates of violence throughout 2013, but
the provided statistics for the year don’t reflect an improvement. In some
areas, conditions measurably worsened: CIIC reported that a “significantly
higher percentage of inmates” tested positive for illegal substances in the
first eight months of 2013 compared to the same time span in 2012.
Disciplinary actions and use of force were noted concerns for CIIC, even
though LECI staff apparently made strides to exert more control over the
inmate population. The prison also has more serious misconduct than similar
minimum- and medium-security facilities. CIIC didn’t formally inspect medical
services and recreational facilities, but inspectors received various complaints
from inmates in both areas. The amount of inmate grievances against staff
actions also remain higher than the years before CCA took over the facility,
although CIIC found slight improvement. Still, the report repeatedly praised
CCA for its improvements, particularly in rehabilitation and reentry
services, better performance of rounds and shakedowns, and stronger health
services and records. One example: CIIC found inmates are receiving 47.9
percent more GED diplomas, which certify a high school-level education, than
they did in 2011, putting LECI’s GED achievement level at the average for
similar prisons. Staffing issues also improved, although the staff turnover
rate remains above the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction
average and security officers reported poor morale because of low wages. For
some critics of privatization, the poor conditions come as no surprise.
Before CCA bought LECI, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio repeatedly
warned that the for-profit incentive encourages private prison companies to
cut services, security and staff while maintaining as many prisoners as
possible, since the prison’s pay is based on how many inmates it holds. CityBeat previously reported on the deteriorating
conditions at LECI after inmates’ insider accounts, requested public records
and numerous state reports found increasing violence and health concerns
(“From the Inside,” issue of May 29).
05/01/2013
aclu.org
Eighteen
months after the first state-owned prison sold to a for-profit prison company,
and there is no doubt that the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) is
woefully unfit for the job. From dirty conditions, rampant drug use, and
staggering increases in violence, the Lake Erie Correctional Institution is
in a dangerous decline, leaving many to questions whether the state needs to
step in and assume greater control. To illustrate the deterioration of the
for-profit prison, the ACLU of Ohio released a timeline showing the
disturbing series of events at Lake Erie.
Let's
look at CCA's problems by the numbers:
•
47: instances of non-compliance outlined in a September 2012 Ohio Department
of Rehabilitation and Corrections audit.
•
300%: increase in inmate on staff violence, and
•
187.5%: increase in inmate on inmate violence from 2010-2012.
•
248: calls to law enforcement from local residents in 2012 asking for patrols
around the prison because of rampant crime, especially people throwing drug
contraband over the prison fences. There were only 157 such reports in the
first 11 years combined of the prison's existence.
•
Two: number of inmates who overdosed on heroin smuggled into the facility in
the last year, with one of the inmates dying.
•
39: number of inmates transferred from Lake Erie in January 2013 after the
facility was in lockdown for over a week following several gang fights.
•
130%: the level of overcrowding in segregation units at the for-profit
prison, meaning inmates are triple-bunked and sleeping on the floors of cells
designed for two people. Inmates in these units are locked inside their cells
for 22 to 24 hours per day.
•
500: number of inmates kept on bunk restrictions (i.e., locked inside their
cells for 22 to 24 hours per day) after another inmate was seriously injured
in an April 7 fight.
•
$500,000: penalties the state levied against CCA over the past eighteen
months because of their mismanagement of the prison.
•
$127.3 million: difference between what the state of Ohio wanted for selling
Lake Erie and how much it ultimately earned.
Advocates
and members of the media are beginning to recognize that Ohio cannot wait
until it is too late to stop the rapid decline of this for-profit prison. The
ACLU has asked state legislators to intervene and hold CCA accountable for
its mismanagement, but the question remains: what else has to go wrong for
officials to wake up to the fact that Ohio should get out of the for-profit
prison industry altogether? Thirty years after CCA was founded, it is clear
that doing business with them is risky for taxpayers, communities, employees
and inmates. Ohio's unfortunate gamble in allowing CCA to purchase a state
prison outright should serve as a tale of caution to other states: seller
beware when CCA wants to buy your prisons.
April
10, 2013 therepublic.com
A
private corrections company says a restriction limiting nearly 500 inmates to
their bunks at a northeast Ohio prison following two weekend fights has been
lifted. The restriction involved one of three housing units at the
1,700-inmate Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut (KAW'-nee-awt). Spokesman Steve Owen with Corrections Corporation
of America in Nashville, Tennessee, said Tuesday the facility is back to
normal operations. The CCA-owned and operated prison houses inmates under
contract with the state of Ohio. The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio
in a report Tuesday said inmate fights and attacks on guards are up sharply
at the prison since the private takeover and blamed overcrowding. CCA
disputes the report, which it called an ACLU attack.
March 27, 2013 starbeacon.com
CONNEAUT — Conneaut’s privately-owned prison is getting
a new boss, Corrections Corporation of America announced Tuesday. Barry
Goodrich, warden since CCA took possession of the ex-state prison in January
2012, is involved in a job switch that takes effect next week. He will
oversee the Bent County Correctional Facility in Las Animas, Colo., while
BCCF’s former boss, Brigham Sloan, is coming to Conneaut. The public will
have a chance to meet Sloan during an open house at the prison between 11
a.m. and 1 p.m. April 3, officials said. “We are excited to have Brigham
Sloan join the management team at Lake Erie,” Daren Swenson, CCA
vice-president of operations, said in a statement. “Throughout his 17-year
career with CCA, Warden Sloan has demonstrated a commitment to operational
quality and strong community service.” Sloan’s mission will be to “build on
recent operational successes achieved under Warden Goodrich’s tenure,”
according to the statement. He will also expand the prison’s “community
outreach initiatives,” according to the statement. Goodrich is only the
second warden LaECI has seen since it opened nearly
13 years ago, and the first since it was sold by the state and became a
for-profit business 15 months ago. In a brief interview Tuesday, Goodrich
indicated family considerations prompted him to relocate. Goodrich’s daughter
lives in Nebraska and his wife has roots in Kansas, he said. “Colorado is
right in-between,” he said. Goodrich said he enjoyed his time in Conneaut and
“the people of the community.” He said the prison’s transition from state-to-privately
owned was “historic” and made for a challenging transition. “I believe we
have accomplished most of the goals we had in place for the prison,” he said.
City Manager Tim Eggleston was away from his office Tuesday and unavailable
for comment. City Council President Thomas Udell
could not be reached for comment. Pollice Chief
Charles Burlingham said he had a “good working
relationship” with Goodrich. CCA has seen a bumpy start to its ownership of
the Conneaut prison. A state inspection in September revealed dozens of
deficiencies, although nearly all had been addressed by the time a follow-up
exam was conducted a few weeks later. In November, an inmate died of a heroin
overdose, a death still being investigated by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. LaECI received American Correctional Association
accreditation in January, but the new year also saw a flurry of
contraband-smuggling incidents that put a spotlight on the prison’s perimeter
security. Attention paid the prison’s security issues prompted a surprise
inspection by the state that revealed a jump in the number of disturbances
inside the prison and a high presence of gang activity. On the plus side, the
prison got good marks in cleanliness, food and other categories. Sloan joined
CCA in 1996, according to a statement. His most recent assignment, BCCF, is a
medium-security prison with 1,466 beds, compared to the minimum/medium status
at LaECI and nearly 1,800 beds — 300 of them added
after CCA took possession. Like Conneaut, Bent County houses state inmates,
according to the web site. LaECI opened in April
2012 as an experiment. At the time, it was Ohio’s first state-owned but
privately-mananged prison, operated by Management
and Training Corp., of Utah. MTC bid on the Conneaut prison when it was put
on the block but lost to rival CCA.
03/06/2013 correctionalnews.com
CONNEAUT, Ohio — A private prison in Ohio has been making headlines in all
the wrong ways since the state sold the facility in 2011. Corrections
Corporation of America (CCA) paid the state $72.7 million for the Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in an unprecedented move that the company’s
representatives predicted would serve as a model for other states at the
time. The private prison company sent correspondence to leaders in 48 other
states, trying to encourage them to make similar deals. Instead, Ohio has
fined the company nearly $500,000 because of various violations found during
audits of the facility. An audit released Sept. 25 of last year found that
the institution was in compliance with American Correctional Association
standards in 94 percent of the categories measured, but was only 66.7 percent
in compliance when it came to standards set by the state of Ohio. The audit
also found that some staff members at the facility, “expressed safety
concerns due to low staffing numbers and not having enough coverage.” The
report indicated that several doors were padlocked shut, blocking the main
escape path in the case of a fire and all 12 staff members interviewed didn’t
know which key opened the firebox. The document also noted that Emergency
Breathing Apparatus’s were difficult to find, often locked away, and hadn’t
been inspected. The audit also found that there were no correctional officers
near the medical unit, even though there were many inmates being treated and
picking up medications, leaving staff members in an unsafe condition. Another
section reported that some inmates felt unsafe and didn’t believe staff
members had the authority to improve the situation. Problems in the medical
unit were also reported, with inmates often waiting longer than required for
doctor appointments and various steps being skipped or forgotten during
clinical visits. The facility also reportedly failed to notify other
facilities when it transferred inmates with staph infections. An additional
walkthrough conducted on Sept. 4 “found unacceptable living conditions of
inmates being housed inside recreation areas, with no immediate access to
running water for hydration, showers and the use of a toilet.”’ A report from
April 7 indicated that an inmate convicted of murder or aggravated murder was
working inside the entry building, which was strictly forbidden as “a serious
security breach.” A follow-up visit in November found that many of the issues
were being addressed, but local citizens and political representatives voiced
their own concerns in the meantime. Officials in the small neighboring town
of Conneaut reported an increase in crime related to the facility, which they
say began after the state transferred responsibility for the facility to CCA.
Crime data from the local government indicates that officers responded to 229
calls related to the prison in 2012, nearly four times the amount that
occurred in the prior year. This led City Councilman Neil LaRusch
to write a letter to the governor’s office asking for assistance. LaRusch sited earlier promises that his local police
would not be burdened by the sale of the prison to a private company and
pleaded for assistance. “The city is not financially in a position to add more
officers to deal with this private prison. With this situation getting out of
hand at this pace, what can the governor propose to assure the safety and
security of the citizens of Conneaut?”
Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 Dayton Daily News
Fights, disturbances and use of force have all
increased at a state prison now owned and operated by Corrections Corp. of
America, according to a new report released Friday. The Correctional
Institutions Inspection Committee conducted a surprise visit to Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in Conneaut in mid-January and documented a high
presence of gang activity, illegal substance use, frequent extortion and
theft and other conditions that make for potentially unsafe conditions.
Inspectors found that staff hesitated to use force when appropriate and had
no sanctions for misbehavior other than segregation, which was full.
Compounding these issues is high staff turnover and low morale, the report
said. “New staff generally do not have the experience or training to be able
to make quick judgments regarding the appropriate application of force or how
to handle inmate confrontations. Staff also reported that they are often
required to work an extra 12 hours per week, which may impact their
response,” the report said. The CIIC report reviewed data from 2010 to 2012
but Corrections Corp of America only handled the prison since Jan. 1, 2012.
CCA also saw an 18.2 percent increase in the number of inmates housed at the
facility over the prisoner population before the private company took ownership.
CCA spokesman Steve Owen disputed the CIIC findings, saying the data spans
three years and different ownership and management. He said CCA made
significant security upgrades, such as additional cameras and upgraded
fencing, and gang activity has declined from 20.6 percent in January 2012 to
16.5 percent in January 2013. Nashville-based CCA bought the facility from
the state in 2011 and signed a contract to house minimum and medium security
inmates at the prison. This is the second time in less than six months that
state inspectors have found poor conditions at the Lake Erie prison. In
September, state monitors and auditors found that inmates didn’t have
immediate access to running water or toilets and were using plastic bags for
defecation and cups for urination. They also documented that inmate
complaints about prison gangs, assaults and other problems had doubled since
the private operator took over. CCA disciplined several employees following
the poor audit. A re-inspection found that conditions had been improved and
the facility later won accreditation from the independent American
Correctional Association. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction reported Friday that the system wide three-year recidivism
rate dropped to 28.7 percent, which is a record low. The previous rate was
31.2 percent and the national average is about 43 percent. “I am excited to
see yet another decline in the number of people who are returning to prison,
and I believe the rate of the decline is particularly significant,” said DRC
Director Gary Mohr. “Reducing offender recidivism and keeping Ohio’s
communities safe are at the core of what we do, and this metric is an
indicator of the effectiveness of the work we are doing to change the
criminal justice system.” The current rate is based on offenders released in
2009. During that time period, 4.68 percent of offenders returned to prison
on a technical violation of supervision or a supervision sanction, while
23.99 percent returned on a new felony commitment. The lower rate means about
658 fewer inmates returning to prison, which calculates to about $15.8
million in annual savings to Ohio taxpayers. Lake Erie Correctional
Institution Location: Conneaut Ownership/management: Corrections Corporation
of America, Nashville,Tenn,
owned and operated. Inmates: 1,768, minimum and medium security Staff: 243 Correctional
Institution Inspection Committee key findings: 2010 to 2011 inmate-on-inmate
assaults increased 187.5 percent and inmate-on-staff assaults increased 306
percent. 2011 to 2012 fights increased 40 percent. 2012 disturbances doubled
over previous years. Last six months 6.7 percent of inmates tested positive
for illegal drugs, which is higher than the DRC average.
February 14, 2013 starbeacon.com
CONNEAUT — Officials with Corrections Corporation of
America on Wednesday night acknowledged a bumpy start to its ownership of the
Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, but promises big improvements
in the coming months. "The first year (of transition) is always
rough," said Daren Swenson, CCA's vice-president of facility operations
told Conneaut City Council. “We know there are things we can do better in
2013. We will see significant changes in 2013.” Several CCA executives, along
with a representative of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Corrections and local law enforcement, were guests at a meeting of council's
public safety committee. The meeting comes on the heels of a surge of
contraband-smuggling cases and other issues in recent weeks that have alarmed
council and the city's state lawmakers. CCA assured city officials they are
aware of the worries and are taking serious steps in response. Warden Barry
Goodrich said LaECI is in the process of upgrading
its camera surveillance system, enhanced its employee training, stepped up
drills regarding perimeter security and has bolstered its
"intelligence-gathering" within the prison. "Our training
meets or exceeds state and industry standards," he said. In late
December and early January, nearly a half-dozen people were arrested within
the span of a few days for trying to toss cellular telephones, tobacco and
other prohibited items over a section of the prison's north fence. Goodrich
said he was pleased to see the arrests, crediting the "high success
rate" to the prison's law enforcement partners and vigilant neighbors.
"It reflects on the Ohio State Highway Patrol, the Conneaut Police
Department and the community," he said. "I've been (in corrections
work) in six states and I've never seen better results." Todd Ishee, ODRC's northeast regional director, said the
over-the-fence smuggling technique is a "conveyance method that has
emerged within the last five years." "It's not unique to Conneaut,
Ohio," Ishee said. However, Conneaut has
logged more arrests regarding those types of incidents than other sites, he
said. CCA took possession of the prison in January 2012, eventually adding
300 beds. On average, the prison houses 1,774 inmates. LaECI
employs 275 people, most of them corrections officers. In September, the
ODRC's first audit of the privately-owned prison revealed dozens of
deficiencies in several areas, including internal security, sanitation,
training and document-handling. A follow-up inspection a few weeks later
showed nearly all the problems had been corrected or were being fixed.
"(The September audit) was a very good learning experience for us,"
Goodrich said. "We learned how Ohio does its audits." Prompted by
council's concerns, a surprise inspection of the prison was conducted by a
five-member team on Jan. 22-23. While the team's report is still being
written, State Rep. John Patterson last week said it revealed some
deficiencies. Councilman-at-large Neil LaRusch
asked about the number of felony-level incidents investigated by the OHP since
CCA took control. Cases dropped in 2012, said Lt. Jerad Sutton, of the
Ashtabula County post. LaRusch also questioned CCA
officials about its attempts to find ways to reduce the property taxes it
pays. Presently, CCA pays more than $1 million annually through its ownership
of LaECI. Steven Owen, the company's marketing
director, said CCA owns more than 40 prisons that comprise considerable
acreage. Any corporation action pertaining to real estate "makes more
sense when you recognize the significant property we own," he said. Owen
later said CCA is "proud" of the tax support its
provides locals schools and local government. LaECI
is making strides in its education programs for inmates, has exceeded the
goal it set for prisons that receive high school equivalency diplomas and
strives to be active in the community, Goodrich said. Council members
stressed they were happy to have CCA in the community, but would appreciate
the prison being more communicative.. High-profile
events at the prison have made residents nervous, and council have been
peppered with questions it cannot adequately answer, members said. "We
definitely will work with you," said Council President Thomas Udell. "There were concerns, and now we know they've
been addressed." Ward 1 Councilman Doug Hedrick, whose ward includes the
prison, praised CCA for "recognizing the need for good community
relations." Some of Hedrick's constituents, "quite frankly, were
frightened," he said.
January 31, 2013 The Columbus Dispatch
Fights that erupted over the weekend at the privately owned Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in Conneaut resulted in more than three dozen
inmates being transferred to a state-owned prison in Mansfield. Fighting
involving “multiple offenders” broke out in two housing units at the Ashtabula
County prison late Friday and early Saturday. A statement from the prison
said the staff “used nonlethal force to quell the fighting and quickly gain
control.” Another fight broke out minutes later in a separate housing unit,
but it also was brought under control. Several inmates were “identified as
participants in the fighting.” One was taken to a local hospital for
treatment of a broken leg after being forced to the ground by a corrections
officer, a State Highway Patrol report on the incident said. The Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections and the patrol are
investigating. Following the incidents, records obtained by The Dispatch show
39 inmates were transferred to the Mansfield Correctional Institution, a
state prison in Richland County. State prisons spokeswoman JoEllen Smith
confirmed the incident took place, but she would not comment on details. “The
staff responded quickly and appropriately. No staff (members) were injured,
and all offenders have been placed in segregation,” she said. Smith said
state employees were involved only in transporting inmates, not dealing with
the disturbance. A closed section at the Mansfield prison had to be opened
and additional officers called in to handle the transferred prisoners, she
said. It is unclear whether the inmates will return to the private prison or
continue to be housed in the state prison. The Lake Erie facility was sold by
the state last year to Corrections Corporation of America, a private business
headquartered in Nashville, Tenn. The facility has 1,542 inmates and a
security staff of 144. Officials with the Ohio Civil Service Employees
Association, the labor union representing state prison employees, said they
have been concerned about problems at the Lake Erie facility, including an influx
of contraband making its way into the prison, as well as a lack of
transparency in reporting incidents. “This isn’t about unions. This isn’t
about trying to blame someone. This is about the safety of the employees,”
said Tim Shafer, OCSEA operations director and a former corrections officer.
Shafer said the violent inmates “become the taxpayers’ problem” once they are
transferred to a state facility.
January 11, 2013 Ohio.com
COLUMBUS: The American Civil Liberties Union wants state help with an increase
in criminal activity around an Ohio prison privatized about a year ago. The
ACLU said Friday that policing the perimeter of the Lake Erie Correctional
Institution in Conneaut (KAW’-nee-awt) along Lake
Erie is overburdening local authorities and creating unsafe conditions. A
Conneaut councilman has written Gov. John Kasich’s regional liaison citing
three recent arrests for contraband, including one where a local officer was
injured. He said the State Highway Patrol has typically handled such duties. A
September audit found dozens of safety, health and security issues at the
prison. In November, an inmate was found dead. Messages seeking comment were
left with the state and Nashville, Tenn.-based Corrections Corporation of
America, the prison’s private owner.
Dec 31, 2012 Plunderbund
Kasich’s private prisons plan saving Ohio money… in the worst possible way:
When Kasich unveiled his first biennium budget in March 2011, he called for
selling five State prisons to “save money” by privatization. By the time
the budgetary legislative sausage making process was completed, the Kasich
Administration reversed course and instead sold only one prison, privatized
the operation (but not ownership) of another and took one privately operated
prison back under State control. At the time, the Kasich Administration
claimed that only the bid by Corrections Corporation of America (the former
employer of Gary Mohr, Kasich’s Rehabilitation and Corrections Director) for
the Lake Erie Correctional Institution made sense for the State to
accept. Ironically, most of the spending from Kasich’s revised plan,
according to the Kasich Administration itself, was from taking the privately
operated prison back into a public institution. So how’s Lake Erie
Correctional been doing under private ownership? Not well, according to
this story from the Dayton Daily News, which has reviewed audits of the
facility by the State’s Correctional Institution Inspection Committee.
Those inspections found: • Padlocked fire exits; • Meat slicers without
safety guards and other food safety violations; • Likely falsification of
food service records; • Clogged water fountains; • Moldy showers; • Unsecured
cleaning chemicals; • No guards monitoring “pill call” — when inmates receive
medications; • Two inmates painting a mural in the entry building that were
ineligible to work in that area because they are convicted killers; •
Unacceptable living conditions of inmates being housed inside recreation
areas, with no immediate access to running water for hydration, showers or
the use of a toilet. And here’s the State’s response to CCA’s unconsciousable breach of its contract with the State of
Ohio: The state docked payments to CCA this year by more than $573,000 for
leaving positions vacant and violating terms of the contract. We saved more
money by paying less to CCA for operating a prison that is below Ohio’s
required standards for prisons. Imagine the shock we had in discovering
that a prison owned by a for-profit company would try to cut corners to turn a
profit! And remember, as a result of Kasich’s privatization efforts,
these companies got to rehire the state prison workers but not honor their
union contracts. The savings, the Administration claimed, would come
from having a profit motivated company operate a prison without having to use
union labor. So, thanks to Kasich, the employees there are getting paid
less and have crappier benefits for the same job they used to have. But
that’s not all they face: Under CCA control, inmate complaints about prison
gangs, assaults and other problems have doubled since the state turned over
control, staff turnover has been more than 20 percent and violent incidents
increased 21 percent inside the medium-security prison, according to public
records. Less pay and worse benefits while working with more gangs, more
violence, deplorable inmate conditions and shocking breaches of
security? It’s no wonder they have large turnover there. Just imagine
how much worse it would have been if Kasich had proceeded with his original
plan. This story should be treated as a front page
news and a Kasich Administration scandal all on its own. But’s
it’s also a ticking time bomb. It only a matter of time
before these small cut corners add up to a big disaster. Ohioans should be
embarrassed that Kasich is letting CCA lock up our fellow citizens in a
facility like this and ashamed that he’s letting Ohioans work in a dangerous,
shoddily-run prison owned by a for-profit corporation that appears to be more
concerned with its own bottom line than the safety of its employees. The
State of Ohio should stop simply fining CCA and should look for a way to
retake ownership and operation of Lake Erie Correctional Institution. It’s
time for Governor Kasich to admit that his privatization experiment has been
a horrific failure, before it’s too late.
Dec 30, 2012 Dayton Daily News
During the past year, unsafe and unsanitary conditions were documented by
state monitors at one of Ohio’s privately-run prisons forcing the new
operator to make major changes less than one year after taking control of the
facility. At the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, which is now owned and
operated by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America,
state-employed monitors and auditors found conditions that included inmates
not having immediate access to running water or toilets and using plastic
bags for defecation and cups for urination. Under CCA control, inmate
complaints about prison gangs, assaults and other problems have doubled since
the state turned over control, staff turnover has been more than 20 percent
and violent incidents increased 21 percent inside the medium-security prison,
according to public records. The prison is located on the Ohio-Pennsylvania
border, just east of Cleveland. “This year we began managing the Lake Erie
Correctional Institution (LaECI), and while we
received an initial audit score for the facility that did not meet our high
standards, both a re-inspection from the state and an extensive audit from
the independent American Correctional Association (ACA), which recommended
accreditation with a score of 99.06 percent, confirm our commitment to
ensuring that LaECI is operating at the highest
quality,” CCA spokesman Steven Owen said in a statement. Ohio Gov. John
Kasich’s administration sold the facility to CCA for $72-million and turned
the keys over on Dec. 31, 2011 to the publicly traded company. Operation —
but not ownership — of the North Central Correctional Complex in Marion was
turned over to another private company, Management & Training Corp. of
Utah. Privatizing two prisons is estimated to save taxpayers $10.4 million
this year, Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections officials said.
Contract Monitor Will Golar, who is assigned to the
CCA-owned Lake Erie prison, reported in September that he “found unacceptable
living conditions of inmates being housed inside recreation areas, with no
immediate access to running water for hydration, showers or the use of a
toilet.” “That’s an extremely serious, serious violation and a serious issue
that obviously we addressed very quickly and then CCA in turn addressed it
very swiftly as well,” said Linda Janes, DRC chief of staff. Golar also documented kitchen floors being mopped with
such dirty water that the floors were left a darker shade, dirty drinking
cups that had to be wiped out before being used, and two inmates painting a
mural in the entry building but they were ineligible to work in that area
because they are convicted killers. An internal audit conducted in September
uncovered: * Padlocked fire exits; * Meat slicers without safety guards and
other food safety violations; * Likely falsification of food service records;
* Clogged water fountains; * Moldy showers; * Unsecured cleaning chemicals; *
No guards monitoring “pill call” — when inmates receive medications. Staff
also reported that they felt unsafe and guards carried pepper ball guns into
the chow halls as a show of force, according to the September audit. The
state docked payments to CCA this year by more than $573,000 for leaving
positions vacant and violating terms of the contract. After the report, CCA
disciplined several employees. “We swiftly took action, disciplining 14
employees from officers to supervisory staff,” Owen said. “The disciplinary
actions ranged from unpaid suspension to counseling and retraining. Quality
conditions in the segregation area have since been reaffirmed during the
State’s recent re-inspection and the subsequent ACA audit.” Janes chalked up
the problems to the addition of 300 beds to the Lake Erie facility and
bringing in Corrections Corporation of America, which had not previously
worked in Ohio under DRC’s extensive rules and policies. But Joanna Saul,
director of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, said that CCA
initially retained 97 percent of the staff who were already working at the
Lake Erie prison. “These reports are obviously very concerning. I certainly
hope that strict attention is being given to improving,” said Saul, whose
agency conducts unannounced inspections of each state prison every two years.
The CCA-owned prison is due for an inspection next year, she said. Saul said
her office has seen the number of complaints from Lake Erie inmates jump to
125 so far this year, compared with 63 for all of 2011. One letter writer from
the CCA-owned prison says his life is in danger: “I have a hit out on me by
gang members, Heartless Felons.” Another writer says his brother is being
forced to carry out a gang hit on another inmate. And a third says the
rehabilitation programs keep getting canceled because of staff shortages.
Inmate complaints from the North Central Correctional Complex, run by MTC,
have also doubled this year compared with 2011, Saul said. Most of the
complaints are about health care, which is typical in most prisons across
Ohio, she said. Violent incidents at the North Central prison have declined
41.8 percent this year compared with last year when it was state-run,
according to DRC records. MTC spokesman Issa Arnita attributes this in part
to taking over a well-run facility. “We are very proud of our outstanding
management team and correctional officers. They have done a wonderful job of
building on an atmosphere of respect and accountability. We have been very
consistent in communicating with offenders and staff in dealing with any
issues before they grow out of control,” Arnita said. MTC previously ran the
Lake Erie prison for more than a decade but won the contract to operate the
North Central prison in Marion. Over the past 12 months, the state monitor
assigned to the MTC-run prison in Marion issued memos about the company
leaving nursing shifts vacant, failing to line up medical specialists to
provide care, and having more than 1,000 inmates backlogged for the chronic
care clinic. The state of Ohio deducted $436,677 from its payments to MTC for
these and other contract failures. And just recently, internal auditors cited
MTC for failing four of 57 mandatory standards and six of 38 non-mandatory
standards. The internal audits were conducted to prepare both prisons for
accreditation by the American Correctional Association in February. Arnita
said MTC anticipates its North Central prison will earn accreditation and
management will make further improvements next year. “During the first year,
we focused primarily on safety and security, placing our greatest efforts in
these areas. We will continue this moving forward; however, we also plan to
expand and improve the various educational, career, and life skills courses
we offer at the facility,” he said. “MTC is dedicated to providing offenders
with meaningful programming that we believe helps reduce recidivism.”
Auditors cited CCA for failing 47 standards in September but a re-inspection
in November found almost a miraculous turnaround. “Congratulations on the
many accomplishments achieved in such a short amount of time,” wrote DRC
Audit Administrator Michelle Burrows to Warden Barry Goodrich at the Lake
Erie prison. Janes acknowledges that DRC’s switch to privatization has not
been flawless. “This was a significant change for Ohio so we certainly
expected some bumps in the road. Obviously, those audit standards showed some
significant issues and other less serious but items that we still take very
seriously and want to make sure that they are rectified,” Janes said. Christopher
Mabe, president of the Ohio Civil Service Employees
Association and a long-time prison worker, was less charitable about CCA’s
performance so far. And he complained that the state prison department is
giving free-of-charge help to CCA in the form of staff training and gang
assessment. “Their audit is a disaster,” said Mabe,
who represents state workers including 10,000 in the prison system. “We
believe the incarceration of human beings should be left up to the judicial
system and the public trust. When you leave incarceration up to a for profit
company, it’s a bad deal for everybody.”
11.28.12 ACLU
CONNEAUT, OH - The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio is calling on the
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) and the Ohio State
Highway Patrol (OSHP) to fully investigate a series of troubling reports
emanating from Correction Corporation of America's (CCA) privately owned Lake
Erie Correctional Institution, including today's report of an inmate death,
possibly from a drug overdose. “This facility was audited in September and
dozens of safety, health, and security issues were found,” said ACLU Director
of Communications and Public Policy Mike Brickner. “Now an inmate is dead.
Clearly, there are systemic problems within this facility and they need to be
addressed.” The September audit at Lake Erie Correctional discovered unsafe
conditions not only for inmates, but for prison staff as well. Highlights
from the list of nearly 50 violations included inadequate medical care, dirty
living conditions, and lack of staff training. For a follow-up audit in
November, the facility made superficial corrections to some of the
violations. Unfortunately, many of the systemic violations involving medical
care and staffing were not addressed or simply left as “pending.” These
larger problems are indicative of issues the ACLU of Ohio and other advocates
pointed out as fundamental flaws with private prison operators. “Running a
safe, secure prison with proper medical care takes resources,” said Brickner.
“The private prison model is built on profit above all else, meaning they
will cut corners to maximize profits. Unfortunately, when medical care and
safety protections are cut, tragedy often occurs. While safety violations may
happen at any facility, private prisons are often less equipped to properly
handle them and ensure they do not happen again.” “There is a reason Ohio
leaders have suggested they may not privatize more state-owned prisons,”
added Brickner. “Whether or not they are willing to admit it yet, this is not
a sustainable model. It puts short term profit ahead of good public policy
and it works against the real efforts Ohio is making to shrink inmate
population and reduce recidivism.” In 2011, the ACLU of Ohio released a
report entitled Prisons For Profit: A Look at Prison Privatization. The
report details the history of private prisons in America and concludes that
they create many long-term problems for state and local governments. In 2012,
Ohio became the first state in the nation to sell a state facility to a
private prison company.
July 12, 2012 Columbus Dispatch
Arguing that workers lost their jobs and had their lives uprooted, the
state’s largest employee union has gone to court over private prisons. The
Ohio Civil Services Employees Association filed suit Monday in Franklin
County Common Pleas Court. The suit represents 270 union members who were
“laid off or otherwise negatively affected” when the state turned over the
North Central Correctional Institution in Marion to a private operator and sold
the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in Conneaut in Ashtabula County. The
union listed 11 individual employees who it said lost jobs, were “uprooted
from their communities or were wrongfully excluded from employment” when the
prisons became private. The union wants the private-prison contracts
overturned and the employees to get their old jobs back. “While we believe
this privatization is unlawful, our bigger concern is the impact that
privatization has on our members’ lives,” said union President Christopher Mabe. “Not only is privatization unsafe and bad public
business, it’s devastating for the lives of these employees and their
communities. These public servants did nothing wrong and now are being
punished by bad public policies.” Last year, the state agreed to sell the
Lake Erie prison to the Corrections Corporation of America, of Nashville,
Tenn., for $72.7 million. The state pays the company to house prisoners
there. At the same time, the Marion prison was shifted to Management and
Training Corp., of Centerville, Utah, and the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility in Lorain County, previously operated by Management and
Training Corp., was taken over by the state. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction won’t comment because
the litigation is pending.
January 11, 2012 Star Beacon
Local leaders are confident they have seen the end of the bureaucratic
tug-of-war that accompanied the recent sale of Lake Erie Correctional
Institution to a private security company. City administrators, at Monday’s
City Council meeting, said a legal ruling issued last week by Ohio Attorney
General Mike DeWine provided the definitive opinion on the sticky issue of
who handles criminal investigations inside the prison. “This matter has been
put to rest,” said Law Director David Schroeder. For the past two months,
opinions swung back and forth on the investigation matter. Depending on the
week — or day — either the city’s police department or the Ohio State Highway
Patrol would handle felony-level cases that originate at the prison, now the
property of Corrections Corporation of America. The OHP assumed the duty
while the LaECI was a state-owned facility. DeWine
put the matter to rest with a letter that said the prison is still considered
a state institution since it houses state inmates, despite its private
ownership. As a result, the OHP will remain the primary law enforcement
authority at LaECI.
January 5, 2012 Star Beacon
The city, in a move that could indicate a lawsuit is looming, will keep tabs
on the impact investigations conducted by local police will have on the
municipal budget. Law Director David Schroeder said the city will closely
monitor the financial cost of handling felony-level cases that result inside
the now privately owned Lake Erie Correctional Institution. The city will
compile the figures over the span of a few months, he said. “We will be
assembling data,” Schroeder said. “There will be an expenditure of time and
resources.” At issue is the city’s sudden discovery that the Conneaut Police
Department will indeed be assigned serious cases originating on prison
property. After a series of meetings with state officials the past several
weeks, including Gov. John Kasich, the city had been led to believe the Ohio State
Highway Patrol would retain the law enforcement task it had held since the LaECI opened in 2000. City administrators and council say
the cash-strapped police department lack the resources and manpower to patrol
the town and spend time at the prison. In 2010, the OHP investigated 125
cases at the LaECI, troopers said late last year.
On Tuesday, Schroeder said the city would “take any and all steps to protect
the community financially.” During council’s work session, Schroeder
referenced an agreement struck between the city and state prior to LaECI’s construction that states the prison will remain
under state ownership. Conneaut spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’
dollars to accommodate the prison, officials said. Last year, when the $72.7
million sale of the prison to Corrections Corporation of America was
announced, some council members said the city should pursue a reimbursement
of its investment. Last month, the city and state composed a memorandum of
understanding that would keep OHP troopers on the job inside the prison. Late
last week, just before the transaction took effect, the city received notice
from the state attorney general’s office that it had concerns with the
agreement, saying troopers working inside a private security business could pose
legal liability concerns. A change in state statutes would be necessary to
secure the attorney general’s approval of the plan, Schroeder said.
Legislation authorizing the use of troopers at the LaECI
is being fast-tracked in Columbus, officials have said. State Rep. Casey
Kozlowski, R-Pierpont, could not be immediately reached Wednesday for a
status update.
November 2, 2011 Star Beacon
Corrections Corporation of America will apparently start from scratch in its
search for employees for the state prison it plans to acquire at the start of
the year. Just about every employee at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution
will be laid off effective Dec. 31, according to paperwork filed last week
with the state by Management and Training Corporation, the Utah-based company
that has operated the prison since it opened in April 2000. In a notice MTC
filed with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, it will
“permanently lay off its employees” at LaECI and
the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility, another prison operated by
MTC. The action will affect 271 people at LaECI,
according to the notice — the same number of people listed as employees on
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections web site. More than
half of the workers, 142 employees, are correctional officers, according to
the notice. The prison’s two deputy wardens are also on the lay-off list.
October 21, 2011 Star Beacon
The understanding that the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department may be
investigating crimes inside Conneaut’s prison next year came as a surprise to
a key player in the plan: Sheriff William Johnson. “I don’t know anything
about it,” he said Thursday. “All I know is what I read in the paper.” On
Tuesday, Conneaut city officials traveled to Columbus for a meeting with Gary
Mohr, director of Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. The
topic was law enforcement responsibility inside the Lake Erie Correctional
Institution once it is sold to Corrections Corporation of America. While in
state hands, the Ohio State Highway Patrol handled all felony-level cases.
Once a private prison, the chore falls to law enforcement with local
jurisdiction, according to the law that authorized the sale. Conneaut was
worried the duty would fall to its understaffed police department. In
Columbus, the delegation was told the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association had
generally agreed investigations would be handled by the sheriff’s department.
On Thursday, Johnson said he had not been involved in meetings regarding the
prison. A few hours later, Johnson said he had been in contact with the CCA
and meetings will be arranged soon with all affected parties, including the
county and Conneaut. At those sessions, responsibilities and — more
importantly — how the added duty will be financed, will be ironed out, he
said. “We’re going to figure out how it will be done,” he said. “It’s all
about being able to finance it.” Like Conneaut, the sheriff’s department is
also enduring its share of money woes. Staff has been let go and patrols
within the county’s 27 townships have been trimmed because of budgetary
problems. As a private business, CCA is expected to pay around $1 million in
property tax to the Conneaut school district and city, as well as the county,
A-Tech and Conneaut Township Park. Johnson said the agency deemed responsible
for prison investigations may be able to earmark some of the tax revenue to
pay for the task. “If tax dollars are coming in, get the money to the people
involved (in investigations),” he said.
October 15, 2011 Star Beacon
A state prison spokesman on Friday held out hope that the Conneaut Police
Department won’t be unduly burdened by crimes occurring inside the Lake Erie
Correctional Institution when the prison goes private at the start of 2012.
Carlo LoParo, communications chief with the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, said he was confident people
will be satisfied with the policing situation once officials have a chance to
explain the process. “These are valid concerns, and once we’re able to
explain the process and procedures, I think city officials and residents will
be pleased,” he said. “People have questions and we have answers.” At issue
is City Council’s belief that the city of Conneaut will be obliged to conduct
criminal investigations within the LaECI once it is
sold to Corrections Corporation of America at the end of the year. The Ohio
State Highway Patrol takes on such felony-level investigations at state-owned
prisons. Legislation says those duties will fall to “local jurisdictions” at
privately-owned prisons, and some city officials take that to mean the
Conneaut Police Department — although the Ashtabula County Sheriff’s Department
has enforcement jurisdiction throughout the county. Earlier this week,
council was startled to hear the news, saying the police department can’t
handle the responsibility at current staffing levels. Some councilmen feared
much of the property tax revenue the city will earn from the privately-owned
prison will be gobbled up with police wages and benefits.
September 10, 2011 Star Beacon
The city of Conneaut is investigating whether it can recoup money it spent
years ago to make the Lake Erie Correctional Institution, soon to be a
privately-owned prison. Meanwhile, the Ohio Department of Taxation has
confirmed that the prison -- once it becomes a for-profit enterprise -- will
indeed be paying property tax to the city, local school district and county.
Questions and doubts had surfaced in recent days about the prison's tax
status once the Corrections Corporation of America is given the keys at the
start of 2012. Earlier this week, Law Director David Schroeder said he is
investigating whether the city is entitled to reclaim some of the taxpayer
cash invested in land acquisition and infrastructure in the 1990s to win a
prison and the jobs it would produce. Schroeder told City Council this week
that he is examining documents pertaining to the issue of possible reimbursement.
At the time, the city was working with another public entity -- the state of
Ohio -- to make a publicly-financed prison a reality. The pending sale of the
prison to CCA in Nashville, Tenn., may put a new light on the relationship,
officials have said. "We were partners going into this," Schroeder
said. "The city struggled to find money to put into
infrastructure." Carlo LoParo,
Ohio Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesman, said
Friday he was unaware of Conneaut's interest in any reimbursement of spent
funds. In the 1990s, Conneaut aggressively pursued a super-maximum security
prison touted by the state. To that end, the city acquired hundreds of acres
from USX Corp. on the city's east side and offering it at no cost to the
ODRC. The super-max prison would go elsewhere, but soon after the state
approved construction of a new minimum/medium security prison. Conneaut
sweetened its offer by offering to bring municipal water and sewer service to
the site. Finance Director John Williams said this week the city obtained
grants to help defray the cost of the infrastructure, but still put about
$500,000 cash into the project. In return, the city obtained a huge
water/sewer customer and receives income tax from employees. As of
mid-August, some 271 people worked at the prison, according to the ODRC
website. In related news, Gary Gudmundson, Ohio
Department of Taxation spokesman, reassured local and county officials Friday
that CCR will make property tax payments when the transaction is finalized at
the start of the new year. Ohio House Bill 153, which spells out the
conditions of the sale of a state prison -- no exceptions. The provision
reads: "The act expressly subjects a private contractor that enters into
a contract to own and operate one of the five prisons authorized by the act
to state and municipal income taxes and the commercial activity tax. Further,
sales involving a contractor in the contractor's role as a consumer or
purchaser are subject to all state and local sales and use taxes unless
exempted under another existing provision of sales and use tax law. After a
prison facility is sold to a contractor, the facility is placed on the county
tax list and duplicate, with the effect of making the facility subject to all
real property taxes and assessments, with no exemption from real property
taxation applying to the conveyed facility." LaECI
was sold for $72.7 million. State Rep. Casey Kozlowski, R-Pierpont, said last
week the prison has been valued at $70.1 million, meaning CCA would pay around
$1 million in property tax annually. The money would be divvied between the
Conneaut school district, city, Ashtabula County, A-Tech (formerly the
county's Joint Vocational School) and Conneaut Township Park. The city could
receive between 15 and 20 percent of the tax collection, Williams said.
"We'll see some dollars from this transaction," he said. Ashtabula
County Auditor Roger Corlett said this week he had no specific information on
tax revenue the prison would generate, adding and his office is investigating
CCA's tax responsibility once the deal is sealed.
September 1, 2011 All Headline News
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced Thursday the
winning bidders in the $200 million privatization of prisons in Ashtabula and
Marion counties. Two out of three bidders won the contracts: Corrections
Corp. of America (CCA) of Nashville, TN, and Management and Training Corp.
(MTC) of Centerville, UT. The Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton, FL, was the
losing bidder. The state of Ohio pushed through with the announcement after a
Columbus judge denied a restraining order by opposition groups to halt the
process. Five adult prisons out of the state's 32 corrections facilities were
up for grabs. CCA will take over the operations of Lake Erie Correctional
Institution in Ashtabula County, while MTC will manage Marion County's North
Central Correctional Institution and the vacant Marion Juvenile Correctional
Facility. The MTC-operated North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in
Lorain County will be turned over to Ohio and merged with the state-operated
Grafton Correctional Institution.
August 7, 2010 Star-Beacon
Officials at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution and Ohio State Highway
Patrol continue to investigate a fight one week ago, which landed 15 inmates
in solitary confinement. The review is proceeding at a deliberate pace, Rich Gansheimer, LaECI warden, said
Friday afternoon. The probe will not be rushed, to ensure a thorough job, he
said. “We want to get to the cause of it,” he said. “We want to get the guys
responsible.” One inmate was injured in a fight that began around 4:30 p.m.
in one of the housing units. He was taken to Ashtabula County Medical Center
for treatment and returned to the prison the same day. No corrections officers
or prison staff were injured, LaECI officials said.
The fight was broken up without the assistance of any outside agencies,
according to reports. Prison officials have declined to say how many inmates
were involved or whether weapons were used, saying those questions will be
answered by the investigation. OHP investigates all crimes that occur on
state prison property.
August 2, 2010 AP
The state is investigating a fight at a private prison in northeastern Ohio
that resulted in 15 inmates punished with solitary confinement. Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said Monday the fight
happened about 4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution.
Smith says no guards were injured and that one prisoner was treated at a
local hospital for injuries and returned to prison the same day. The prison
system and the state highway patrol are investigating. The prison run by
Utah-based Management and Training Corporation is a minimum and medium
security facility with about 1,500 inmates.
May 18, 2005 AP
Ashtabula County's budget problems are so severe that dozens of crimes
committed at one of the state's two privately operated prisons aren't being
prosecuted. The northeast Ohio county doesn't have enough money to handle all
the crimes reported, Prosecutor Thomas Sartini
said. Some crimes reported at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution are
being overlooked as a result. "I don't like not to prosecute any case
that's a legitimate case," Sartini said.
"I've always taken the position that we're going to prosecute cases to
the fullest extent, but if I've got one hand tied behind my back, it's a
little tough to do. So we're in a position where we've had to make some
calls. The only crimes consistently prosecuted from the prison involve
inmates assaulting guards or attempts to smuggle drugs into the prison. State
Highway Patrol records show that inmate attacks on other inmates are usually
overlooked. Prisoners aren't being prosecuted for having weapons, either.
March 14, 2004
An inmate at the Lake Erie Correctional Institution was found badly beaten
Tuesday afternoon, officials said. The inmate, identified as Bobby Donaldson,
22, was reportedly struck by a padlock placed inside a sock, officials
said. (Star Beacon)
January 24, 2003
CONNEAUT
- The state prison perched on Conneaut's East Side generated nearly $400,000
for the city's budget last year, nearly half of that in municipal income-tax
revenues, according to figures provided by Finance Director John
Williams. The information has been
relayed to Gov. Bob Taft, who on Wednesday confirmed he will close at least
one state prison to help heal a $720 million budget deficit. The Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in Conneaut has not been excluded, officials have
said. The medium-security prison is
operated by Management and Training Corp., of Utah, and MTC employees - more
than 250 people - paid nearly $125,000 in city income taxes, Williams
said. The prison also buys a huge
amount of water from the city. Water revenue from the prison was $88,000,
while sewer revenue was $159,000, Williams said. Conneaut counts on prison-related revenues
to help pay off its prison-related debt. To entice the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction to consider a Conneaut site for its first privately
managed prison, the city offered gifts of land and infrastructure. While the state contributed more than $39
million to the prison project - primarily in construction costs - Conneaut
agreed to absorb nearly $2.1 million in expenses. The city's expenses include
sewer lines ($647,000), waterlines ($591,000), a mandatory water tank
($532,000) and land ($309,000). Loans were obtained to help the city handle
the costs. The city bought nearly 500
acres of land from USX Corp. and donated some 175 acres to the state for the
prison. The balance of the acreage is home to the East Conneaut Industrial
Park and the city's compost site.
State Rep. George Distel, D-Conneaut, has
said the loss of the prison would bankrupt the city since it would lose its
main method of repaying the prison debt. Distel has
said he has shared Williams' information with Taft's office. (The
Staff)
Lucas County
Miscellaneous
September 22, 2003
The Lucas County Sheriff’s Office is seeking information on the whereabouts
of a jail inmate who escaped Monday from a West Toledo hospital, where he was
awaiting surgery for a jaw injury he had sustained the day before in a jail
elevator. John A. Perez, 23, whose last known address was in the 900
block of Elm Street in Toledo, had finished taking a shower when he asked a
guard whether he could return to the bathroom in his second-floor room at St.
Anne Mercy Hospital so he could spit out blood from the jaw injury. He
wasn’t wearing leg irons because he had just gotten out of the shower.
A private security guard, who was hired by the sheriff’s office, turned his
head, and Mr. Perez ran out the door and down the hall and fire escape,
wearing only a hospital gown, authorities said. Mr. Perez was arrested
Aug. 13 on two counts of felonious assault. He is accused of shooting Anthony
Contreras in the right leg and firing at a vehicle driven by Dustin Evans on
July 27 in East Toledo. Anyone who can provide information on Mr.
Perez’s whereabouts is asked to call the Toledo Crime Stopper program at 419-255-1111.
Callers may remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
(Toledo Blade.com)
Mansfield
Correctional Institution, Ohio
Aramark
Oct. 17, 2013
mansfieldnewsjournal.com
MANSFIELD — Two Aramark
Food Service employees who worked at Mansfield Correctional Institution were
fired over the weekend for “inappropriate relationships” with inmates,
according to a prison incident report. A third Aramark employee resigned,
according to the report dated Sunday by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction. “There was an investigation conducted involving three inmates
involved in relationships with three Aramark employees,” the report states.
“In result of overwhelming information received from independent sources it
was decided to remove C. Swann, L. (Lori) Rush and S. (Shaylee) Wade from
their employment as an Aramark contractor at MANCI. “C. Swann was interviewed
on Oct. 12. Her belongings were searched and a patdown
was performed resulting in no contraband found. C. Swann was informed not to
report to work at MANCI. S. Wade was interviewed on Oct. 13 and informed not
to report to work at MANCI. L. Rush resigned her position to Ms. Heather
Solon (Aramark) on Oct. 13 prior to being interviewed.” The incident report
states three inmates involved in the probe were placed in segregation.
“Aramark employees do go through training about inappropriate relationships,”
said JoEllen Smith, spokesperson for the ODRC. “We take it very seriously.”
Two inmates had new tattoos in reference to the workers, the report stated.
One is serving 10 years for robbery and aggravated burglary. Another is
serving 25 years for involuntary manslaughter, aggravated robbery, kidnapping
and having a weapon under disability. A third inmate is serving six years for
involuntary manslaughter. He did not admit he was involved with one of the
workers, but acknowledged “helping her (one of the women) a lot.”
“Information from both inmates and staff members were confirmed through the
course of this investigating validating that inappropriate relationships were
ongoing between these contractors and inmates,” the report stated. There have
been no allegations of criminal activity to date. Scott Basquin,
spokesman for MANCI, said Aramark employees have been working at MANCI in
food service since Sept. 8. He did not know how many Aramark employees are
working at MANCI. “It’s changing daily,” Basquin
said. The union representing the majority of corrections employees in the
ODRC stated it will be on alert during the transition period to a private
food service vendor. “We will be vigilant and watching to be sure that
Aramark maintains its contractual obligation and sustains an adequate level
of security in the prisons,” said OCSEA President Christopher Mabe. “We will be monitoring this contract very closely.”
The corrections employees in food service were there for decades, Mabe said. “These stories are just the beginning. This
isn’t the only institution,” he said. The union says the takeover will
continue to weaken security in Ohio’s prisons since private food service
workers are not trained in protection and security and cannot respond to
emergencies. Mabe said this is a warning sign the
union has talked about in using mass amounts of private contractors in the
department of corrections. “Nobody’s freedoms should be left up to the
highest bidder,” Mabe said. “And for-profit
companies, that’s what they deal with. When you take away a person’s freedoms
through incarceration, there should be no-profit motive behind that.
Mahoning County Jail
Mahoning, Ohio
Prison Medical Services
November 25, 2002
Mahoning
County will pay more next year to provide medical services for
county jail inmates. The county has
contracted with Prison Medical Services of Brentwood, Tenn., since the jail
on Fifth Avenue opened in 1996. In December, commissioners
increased the monthly payment to PMS by $13,000, for a total of
$102,000. The company had threatened
to drop the county without the increase because it was losing too much
money. To help keep the cost down,
commissioners will probably have to give up an indemnification clause that
has shielded the county from incurring any costs for medical treatment
required by inmates who are transferred to a hospital or special treatment
facility outside the jail. Under those
terms, the contract would cost the county $1,409,364 a year, which is an
increase of $183,186 over what the county pays now. (The Vindicator)
Miami Fort Power Plant
Cleves, Ohio
Wackenhut (Group 4)
December 20, 2004 Cincinnati Enquirer
A
security guard at a Cinergy power plant in Cleves has been accused of making
a false report of a bomb threat and other security breaches. Adam D. Griffin,
19, of Lawrenceburg, Ind., was charged inducing panic, a fourth-degree
felony, and three misdemeanor counts of making a false alarm, according to
the Hamilton County Sheriff's office. Griffin is an employee of Wackenhut
Security Corp. and was working as a night security guard at Cinergy's Miami
Fort power station.
Northeast Integration Center
Cleveland, Ohio
The rape of a Cleveland woman at
a downtown jail is just one ugly part in a series of lawsuits aimed at the
state over the use of controversial private food service company, Aramark.
Originally hired on in 2013 after the state cut ties with the public employee
union that previously handled the culinary responsibilities at Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction facilities, the company is now
being hit with complaints and legal action, according to a recent rundown by
the Columbus Dispatch. The latest reporting tracks with Scene's own hard look
at the company's track record in Ohio and Michigan. The Cleveland inmate,
serving a six-year sentence, was harassed and eventually raped in May 2015 in
the kitchen at the Northeast Integration Center on E. 30th near downtown. Her
assailant, an Aramark employee named Jonathan Velez, was eventually arrested
and charged with the crime. But according to lawsuits the victim has filed in
state and federal court, Aramark knew Velez was messing with prisoners but
failed to stop the inappropriate behavior. And as the Dispatch reports, this
is just the tip of the iceberg. According to the paper, 300 Aramark staffers
"have been banned from working in state prisons because they imported
contraband or committed security violations or other misconduct" since
the company took over at ODRC. The Dispatch determined an average of seven
company employees were banned each moth.
One-hundred-and-sixty-eight Aramarkers were
dismissed for “unprofessional and inappropriate relationships” with
prisoners. Employee misbehavior and criminality are not the only problem. The
company has also been accused to providing disgusting food to prisoners. As
Scene reported in February 2015, Ohio "cited Aramark 240 times in 2014
for shorting inmates on food. The state's prison kitchens have also seen
issues with maggots, mice turds, employee shortages, substandard food, and
unsanitary conditions."
Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center
Youngstown, Ohio
Dec 16, 2022 cleveland.com
Guard pleads guilty to smuggling drugs, other items
into private prison in Youngstown
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A guard at a private prison in
Youngstown has pleaded guilty after he was accused of smuggling marijuana and
other items to inmates.Terry Terrigno,
30, of Canfield, who worked at the medium-security Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center, was charged last month with one count each of providing
narcotics, marijuana and tobacco to inmates and one count of accepting
bribes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of
Ohio. Prosecutors say Terrigno maintained a
post-office box from February 2017 to July 2019 and regularly received
portions of tobacco, marijuana, and suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid
addiction, through the mail from associates of inmates. Terrigno
smuggled the items into the prison and gave them to inmates. Terrigno received more than $8,650 in electronic bribery
payments through a mobile phone application, prosecutors say. The prison is
owned by CoreCivic, which operates more than 65
facilities across the nation.
Nov 16, 2022 cleveland.com
Guard at Youngstown private prison faces charges in
smuggling scheme
CLEVELAND, Ohio — A guard at a private prison in
Youngstown is facing multiple federal criminal charges after he was accused
of smuggling drugs and other items into the facility. Terry Terrigno, 30, of Canfield, a guard at the medium-security
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, was charged Monday with one count each of
providing narcotics, marijuana and tobacco to
inmates and one count of accepting bribes, according to the U.S. Attorney’s
Office for the Northern District of Ohio. Prosecutors say court documents
show Terrigno accepted bribes to smuggle suboxone,
a drug used to treat opioid addiction, marijuana and
tobacco into the prison. Inmates reportedly paid Terrigno
through a phone app. The smuggling occurred from February 2017 to July 2019,
authorities say. The prison is owned by CoreCivic,
which operates more than 65 facilities across the nation.
Sep
8, 2021 wfmj.com
Youngstown
private prison suicide probe finds non-compliance of detention standards A
federal investigation into the suicide of an immigrant being held at
Youngstown's private prison has found that the prison failed to comply with
detention standards.
A
federal investigation into the suicide of an immigrant being held at
Youngstown's private prison has found that the prison failed to comply with
detention standards. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector
General released findings last week of an investigation conducted jointly
with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Office of
Professional Responsibility, and the ICE Health Service Corps. The findings
jointly investigated the death of an ICE detainee who, according to
authorities, hung himself at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. The
report does not identify the inmate or say when the suicide occurred.
Investigators say they interviewed NEOCC facility staff and medical staff and
reviewed the autopsy report, coroner's report, medical records, incident
report, and policies and procedures. The findings state that NEOCC failed to
comply with four requirements of the ICE Performance-Based National Detention
Standards 2011. The areas of non-compliance pertained to significant
self-harm/suicide prevention/intervention, detention files,
admission/release, and custody classification system, according to the
findings. In addition, five areas of concern were noted regarding the
inmate's medical care, safety, and security at NEOCC, although they were not
violations of detention standards. The
joint investigation did not identify any criminal violations. 21 News has
reached out to CoreCivic for a response to the
findings. NEOCC is one of about 70
correctional institutions operated by the CoreCivic
around the country. Early Monday, an inmate who was found hanging at NEOCC
was pronounced dead after being taken to a hospital. NEOCC officials issued a
statement saying the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction inmate
committed suicide. Youngstown Police and the Mahoning County Coroner are
investigating.
Apr
30, 20221 wfmj.com
Former
Youngstown prison guard sentenced for inmate sex abuse and bribery scheme
Federal
authorities handed down sentencing Thursday for a former guard at a
Youngstown private prison for her involvement in the sex abuse and bribery
scheme she ran within the prison. Barbara Davis, 47, was sentenced to five
months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge
Thursday. Davis, a former Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (NEOCC)
correctional officer, pleaded guilty in January of 2021 to sexual abuse of a
ward, accepting bribes and providing a cell phone and tobacco to an inmate.
"Exploiting a position of trust by sexually abusing an inmate and
receiving bribe payoffs for smuggling contraband into a correction center
threatens to undermine the public's trust in our criminal justice
system," said Acting U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan. "Let this
matter be a reminder to the public that anyone who seeks to harm and exploit
inmates or detainees can and will be held accountable." According to
court documents, from on or about November 13, 2017, to November 7, 2018,
Davis engaged in sexual conduct with an inmate at the NEOCC. During this same
time, Davis smuggled contraband, specifically a cell phone and tobacco, to
the inmate at the NEOCC. In return, Davis received payments made from other
parties through a mobile payment application.
Mar
6, 2021 cleveland.com
‘He
was supposed to be safe there’: Akron man sues private prison, state
authorities over death of his brother
CLEVELAND,
Ohio — An Akron man accused prison officials Friday of failing to provide
basic medical care for his brother, who died of pneumonia in his cell a day
after seeking treatment. Don McCann filed the wrongful-death lawsuit in U.S.
District Court in Columbus that alleged officials prevented his brother,
James, from getting help in the last hours of his life. James McCann was
serving a 4½-year sentence out of Summit County when he died May 12, 2019.
“He was supposed to be safe there,” Don McCann, the administrator of his
brother’s estate, said in an interview. “He struggled with opioid addiction,
and we knew he would be off the streets, getting help. They didn’t do their
jobs.” His attorney, Peter Pattakos, agreed: “It is
beyond failing to do a job. It is supposed to be a rehabilitation system, a
correctional system.” James McCann had been serving his sentence at the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown. Tennessee-based CoreCivic, one of the largest owners of private prisons
in the country, has a contract with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction to run the Youngstown facility. McCann, 37, was admitted to the
state prison system in June 2018 and later transferred to the Youngstown
prison. He had been convicted of drug possession, attempted robbery,
receiving stolen property, forgery and burglary. The
lawsuit says that on May 6, 2019, McCann suffered from chest pain so severe
that he struggled to breathe or move. The document says a nurse practitioner
at the facility scheduled an appointment for him four days later. There is no
record of McCann ever attending that appointment, according to the lawsuit,
and it is unclear why he did not. On May 11, he asked a corrections officer
whether he could return to the medical unit, but the officer refused, the
document says. McCann was found dead in his cell the next day. The Mahoning
County coroner’s office ruled he died from acute pneumonia. The lawsuit says
that other correctional officers knew of McCann’s medical needs. “McCann’s
pneumonia would not have been fatal had he received basic medical attention,
including if prison staff allowed him to visit the medical pod on May 10, as
was scheduled by [the prison’s] medical staff, or on May 11, as McCann
requested,” the lawsuit says. An inmate, John Auman,
wrote a letter to McCann’s family weeks after his death. He said in the
letter McCann had been complaining to him of chest pains, and “he got to the
point where he was in so much pain he could hardly move,” the lawsuit says.
He said McCann tried to return for medical help but was denied, according to
the allegations. “Well, the next day is when we found him,” the lawsuit
quotes Auman. “He was stiff as a board and purple.”
McCann had two daughters, ages 10 and 11. “The courts sentenced Mr. McCann to
4½-years in prison, but CoreCivic and the officials
there turned it into a death sentence,” Pattakos
said. A spokeswoman for CoreCivic said: “While we
can’t speak to the specifics of active litigation and privacy laws prevent us
from disclosing information about medical treatment, CoreCivic
is committed to providing high-quality healthcare to those entrusted to our
care.” A spokeswoman for the state prison system said it does not comment on
pending litigation. The Northeast Ohio Correctional Center houses about 850
state inmates. It also has had a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service to
house pretrial federal detainees since the early 2000s. That contract expired
earlier this week, but authorities received a three-month reprieve. The
contract is not expected to be renewed after the extension, according to
interviews. The prison has nearly 800 federal detainees.
Mar
4, 2021 alreporter.com
House
passes bill to create oversight of costly contracts
The
Alabama House of Representatives on Tuesday approved a bill that would create
an oversight committee tasked with providing a check on costly executive
branch agreements. Members voted unanimously to approve House Bill 392,
introduced by state Rep. Mike Jones, R-Andalusia, which would create the
Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Obligation Transparency that would
review any agreement totaling at least $10 million, or 5 percent of the
agency’s annual appropriation, and if after 45 days from the time the
agreement was submitted there is no objection, the agreement would be
approved, according to the legislation. If the committee disapproves of an
agreement, it will remain suspended until after the end of the next regular
legislative session, when lawmakers would have the opportunity to address
concerns over the agreement, according to the legislation. The
legislation comes as Gov. Kay Ivey’s push to build three new prisons under a
controversial build-lease plan, without input from the state Legislature,
which could cost taxpayers $3.7 billion over the terms of the contracts. Ivey
on Feb. 1 signed 30-year leases for two new prisons to be built by the
private prism company CoreCivic in Escambia and
Elmore counties. The state will operate the prisons while CoreCivic
is to handle maintenance, according to the contracts. Rep. Chris Pringle,
R-Mobile, asked Jones before the vote if the bill is an “overreach of
separation of powers.” Jones said that the bill is not and that “we can’t
tell the executive branch not to sign something.” Jones said his bill would
give time for legislative committees to review and address such agreements.
“I think this is overkill. I understand what you’re doing, and I think your
intentions are noble, but I don’t really see it,” Pringle said. Rep. Mike
Ball, R-Madison, said he supports the bill and explained it would help
broaden transparency. “I love the governor. I think the governor’s doing a
great job, but a lot of times we have to keep in mind the worst
case scenario over there,” Ball said. Ball went on to say that when
things are kept secret “it creates an opportunity for corruption.” Rep. Sam
Jones, D-Mobile, expressed concern that, if the Legislature were to determine
there were problems with an executive branch agreement, there would still be
no avenue for legislators to stop such an agreement. Jones said his bill
would allow the Legislature to have the time to address any such agreement in
two ways. In the first, the general fund budget could be reduced, he said,
and the Legislature could decide to make changes through legislation. Rep.
Chris England, D-Tuscaloosa, who’s been a vocal critic of Ivey’s prison
construction plan, expressed support for the bill and said at the end of the
terms of the leases signed by Ivey, the state still won’t own the prison
buildings. “I wish we had this about 12 months ago,” England said. England
discussed a previous bill in a prior legislative session that he and Jones
worked on together that would have closed some prisons, built others and spent millions. “What’s interesting about
that is the legislative process is designed to make it difficult to do things
like that,” England said, adding that spending billions of dollars shouldn’t
be an easy thing to do. “It should be hard. It should take years. It should
have as many eyes on it as possible. It should go through oversight,” England
said. House Minority Leader Rep. Anthony Daniels, D-Madison, said he’s
supportive of Ivey and her decisions, that he believes the bill could be
“borderline undermining the governor” and asked Jones if the bill could be
altered to address only future governors. “This is where I would
fundamentally disagree,” Jones replied. “I do believe that this governor has
spoken many times in the past about transparency and that government should
be transparent to the public, to the citizens of the state. I mean frankly,
that’s one of the reasons why we all respect this governor.” Daniels said the
Legislature moved too slow on the prison matter, and that Ivey “did what she
needed to do.” Rep. Merika Coleman, D-Birmingham, asked Jones about a
potential emergency situation, which might require
general fund money, and Jones said the Legislature should be able to review
that. Jones said the majority of such emergencies
would be addressed with federal funds, and his bill only addresses executive
branch use of the state’s General Fund budget. Having been approved in the
House, the Senate will take up the bill next.
Feb
26, 2021 finance.yahoo.com
CoreCivic Expects the Contract
with the United States Marshals Service at the Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center Will Not be Renewed
BRENTWOOD,
Tenn., Feb. 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- CoreCivic,
Inc. (NYSE: CXW) (the Company) announced today that, effective March 1, 2021,
it has entered into a 90-day contract extension with
the United States Marshals Service ("USMS") at the Company's
2,016-bed Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. The USMS has notified the
Company that it does not anticipate extending the contract following the
90-day extension. While the Company is not currently aware of alternative
locations where the USMS can house the approximately 800 federal detainees
currently located at the Northeast Ohio facility, President Biden recently
issued an executive order directing the Department of Justice not to renew
contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities.
Feb
27, 2020 cleveland.com
Private
Ohio prison guards sue owner, say company should have paid them for security
screenings
CLEVELAND,
Ohio — A pair of guards from the privately-owned Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center in Youngstown sued the prison’s owner and said the company should pay
them for the time they spent going through security prior to the beginnings
of their shift. Guards Jeanne Ballard and Marsha Caposell
said in a lawsuit filed in federal court Tuesday that private prison giant CoreCivic requires corrections officers to undergo a
security screening before each shift. This requires an officer to empty their
pockets; take off their shoes, belts, jackets and all metal objects; empty
their bags; and submit personal items for inspection, the lawsuit says. The
guards then walk through a metal detector before reclaiming their belongings.
Since the screenings are to prevent guards from bringing weapons and
contraband into the prison, they are “integral and indispensable” to their
jobs, the suit says. However, the company did not pay the guards for the
pre-shift screenings and violated the federal Fair Labor Standards Act
because the employees did not receive overtime, according to the lawsuit. The
lawsuit says Ballard and Caposell were employed at
the prison within the past three years, though their current employment
status was not immediately known. A phone call left for their attorney Hans Nilges was not returned Wednesday. The lawsuit seeks an
unnamed amount in damages and wants the judge to approve collective and class
action statuses to allow other current and former CoreCivic
corrections officers from across the country to participate. A spokesman for CoreCivic said in an email that the company does not
comment on active litigation but said that “we believe that the security
screening practices that are challenged in this complaint are fully compliant
with applicable legal requirements.” CoreCivic is
one of the largest private prison companies in the U.S. In addition to the
Youngstown facility, the company owns the Lake Erie Correctional Institution
in Conneaut, which operates as a state prison. The Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center houses state prison inmates as well as people awaiting
trial in federal court in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. A
contract CoreCivic had with U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement to house immigrant detainees ends after this month. The
case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson.
Feb
8, 2020 cleveland.com
ICE
to stop housing immigrant detainees at private Youngstown prison
CLEVELAND,
Ohio — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will stop using a private prison
in Youngstown to house immigrants awaiting either deportation or a court
decision that could allow them to stay in the country. ICE officials said in
an emailed statement Friday night that its contract with CoreCivic,
the Nashville-based owner of the 2,016-bed Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center, ends Feb. 29 and that the prison “was never meant to be a permanent
ICE detention location.” The statement did not give additional details about
why ICE would cease using the prison, which has housed immigrant detainees
for several years. ICE’s use of the prison has been met with opposition from
advocates who not only protest the aggressive enforcement of immigration laws
by President Donald Trump’s administration, but also the administration’s use
of private facilities that they say have substandard and inhumane conditions.
Immigration advocates have complained about problems they’ve heard about from
inside the prison walls, from denial of religious services to poor food
quality. Detainees also told their attorneys last year that they felt their
wing was overpopulated. However, immigration attorneys have said the prison
doesn’t have many of the problems seen at other private facilities
nationwide, as well as in makeshift holding facilities such as sweltering camps
and abandoned warehouses. Lawyers have also said the staff is helpful in
accommodating client visits. ICE’s statement did not explain where immigrants
currently housed in Youngstown would be moved but said such decisions are
made ”on the basis of complete and accurate case information … and are
undertaken as needed for a variety for reasons to include (but are not
limited to) available space, court appearances or in preparation to depart
the U.S. “There is nothing unusual about transfers from one location to
another,” the statement continues. ICE entered into
a contract with CoreCivic in late 2016 for beds at
the Youngstown prison. At the time, President Barack Obama’s administration
was preparing for an expected influx of Haitian refugee seekers. The initial
contract was only for a few months though ICE continued to use the prison.
Officials said in May that the then-current agreement allowed for up to 352
detainees to be housed in pods at the prison and that an additional 60
detainees could be housed temporarily on emergency beds. An inspection done
for the federal government by The Nakamoto Group in March 2019 said the
prison’s immigration wing met all required standards, though it found prison
staff should make improvements related to food service and suicide prevention
programs. ICE’s Office of Detention Oversight also inspected the prison in
2018 and found problems related to security, medical care and food service,
as well as in other areas. In Ohio, ICE also has contracts to house
immigrants in local jails in Geauga, Seneca, Morrow and Butler counties. The
Youngstown prison also holds defendants awaiting trial in federal court and
inmates serving state prison sentences. It operated as a federal prison for
about a decade, though the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to renew its
contract in late 2014. The end of CoreCivic’s
contract with ICE means the prison will have more empty beds. U.S. Marshal
Pete Elliott, whose office oversees the detention of federal inmates awaiting
trial, said Friday that the marshals’ administration is in negotiations with CoreCivic for more bed space. Our contract with CoreCivic culminates on Feb. 29. The CoreCivic
facility was never meant to be a permanent ICE detention location. Transfers
in ICE custody are made by authorized officials on the basis of complete and
accurate case information, as outlined in ICE detention standards, and are
undertaken as needed for a variety for reasons to include (but are not
limited to) available space, court appearances or in preparation to depart
the U.S. There is nothing unusual about transfers from one location to
another. ICE detainees are housed in a variety of facilities across the
United States, including ICE-owned-and-operated facilities; local, county or
state facilities contracted through Intergovernmental Service Agreements, and
contractor-owned-and-operated facilities. ICE uses these various models to
meet the agency’s detention needs while achieving the highest possible cost
savings for the taxpayer.
Nov
22, 2019 wytv.com
Former
Youngstown private prison employee accused of having sexual contact with
inmate
A
woman from Canfield is charged with having sex with an inmate at the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN,
Ohio (WYTV) – A woman from Canfield is charged with engaging in sexual
conduct with an inmate at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in
Youngstown while she was employed there. According to court records, Kim
Harbison, 61, is charged with sexual battery. Police say Harbison engaged in
sexual conduct with an inmate in June at the private prison on Hubbard Road.
Harbison’s bond is set at $15,000. Harbison is listed as an administrative
clerk in unrelated court documents. Prosecutors say she no longer works
there.
May
9, 2019 vindy.com
Inmate stabbed at private prison
Police are investigating after an inmate was stabbed several times in the
head and hand at the CoreCivic Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center, 2240 Hubbard Road. Officers were called to the prison at
about 9:40 a.m. Tuesday. The inmate told officers he was sleeping when he
felt a pain in his side, and when he tried to get up, he was punched and
stabbed in the head. The victim was treated at the prison, then taken to the
hospital, reports said. Reports said there is a suspect.
Jan 12, 2019 vindy.com
Ohio: Former Corecivic inmate sues
A former Northeast Ohio Correctional Center inmate claims he developed MRSA
during his incarceration and center personnel denied him medical treatment.
MRSA is a bacterial infection that can be contagious. According to U.S.
Northern District of Ohio court filings, Maurice D. Smith, currently
incarcerated at a federally run prison in Glenville, W.Va., is seeking more
than $500,000 in compensation for pain and suffering as well as reimbursement
for medical expenses from CoreCivic of America,
which runs the holding facility, and health care provider Correct Care
Solutions. Smith claims his initial symptoms of pain in his leg went
unaddressed by facility staff until he required surgery. Smith claims he now
has limited mobility and pain. CoreCivic spokesman
Rodney King said the company has not been served with the suit and declined to
comment on the pending litigation or Smith’s claim of a MRSA diagnosis.
Aug 21, 2018 cleveland.com
5 faith leaders arrested outside CoreCivic
prison in Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - Five faith leaders were
arrested for trespassing outside of CoreCivic's
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Monday, after trying unsuccessfully to
meet with and administer communion to undocumented immigrants being held
there. Forty people protested outside the private prison on Monday to call
attention to the estimated 300 immigrants being detained there under
administrative immigration violations, including about 70 arrested at Fresh
Mark meat-processing plants in June. Chrissy Stonebraker-Martinez,
co-director of the InterReligious Task Force on
Central America, said that a number of undocumented men being held there -
including members of local congregations - have repeatedly asked for
spiritual services they have not received. CoreCivic
spokesman Rodney King responded via email: "Any claims that detainees
are not provided opportunities for religious activities and participation are
completely false. Northeast Ohio Correctional Center has a full-time, onsite
chaplain, who all detainees have access to five days a week. The facility
also offers religious services weekly to detainees. Additionally, we make
accommodation for all religious dietary needs. All of these accommodations
adhere to Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS)."
Pastor Dustin White of Radial Church in Canton said that believers of all
faiths are called to speak up for the people behind the prison walls. Just as
God told Moses, "I've seen my people suffer, I've heard their cries, and
I've come to set them free," he said. "What you're doing is
immoral," he told the CoreCivic employees.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said that it no longer
exempts classes or categories of undocumented immigrants from potential
penalties, meaning that "all of those in violation of immigration laws
may be subject to immigration arrest, detention, and if found removable by
final order, removal from the United States." Pastor James Talbert of
Citizens Akron church brought pieces of matzo to deliver communion. J.R. Rozco, of Missio Alliance in
Canton, brought a chalice of grape juice. Austin Miller, a Mennonite and fair
trade business owner in Canton, said the detainees were being treated more
harshly than the inmates. Just as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said that
"a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,"
Talbert said people of faith must be willing to stand up for the persecuted.
When CoreCivic employees stopped them from walking
down the driveway toward the prison, Rev. John Beaty of Akron Interfaith
Immigration Advocates knelt down and read aloud from the Bible. When the CoreCivic employees refused to budge, the men offered to
pray with them. Stonebraker-Martinez used her
bullhorn to lead the other protesters in chants and spirituals. Additional
Youngstown Police officers arrived and handcuffed the five of them. CoreCivic, formerly called Corrections Corporation of
America, is one of the nation's largest owners and operators of private
prisons. It owns and manages 94 correctional, detention and residential
reentry facilities, including the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, and the
Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut.
Jun
20, 2018 wfmj.com
Ohio: Two inmates kidnap another to get out of Corecivic
prison
Two prison inmates described as repeat violent offenders face new charges
after allegedly kidnapping a fellow inmate so they could be moved out of the
private prison in Youngstown. Thirty-three-year-old Michael Shane and
31-year-old Harley Rawson pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of
kidnapping and possession of a weapon under detention. Both men were indicted
by the Mahoning County Grand Jury after allegedly holding another inmate
against his will at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Facility in Youngstown on
April 11. Investigators tell 21 News the men committed the alleged crime in
order to be transferred to another prison. Both men were moved to the
Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville, Ohio. Shane is serving a
20-year sentence for attempted murder. Rawson is in prison for seven years
following a robbery conviction.
Feb
16, 2017 wfmj.com
Fewer prison inmates mean fewer dollars in Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The city of Youngstown is
being required to return half of the money it receives from the company that
operates a private prison on the city's East Side. The city Board of Control on Thursday
voted to reimburse CoreCivic Inc. half of the
$300,000 it received in advance from the company. CoreCivic runs
the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road, housing both state
and federal inmates. The city has an agreement with CoreCivic
in which the company pays the city $300,000 annually unless the average daily
prison population is between 750 and 1,250. Since the average daily prison
population in 2017 was 970, the city had to refund CoreCivic
$150,000. If the inmate population would have averaged fewer than 750, the
city would have been required to refund the entire $300,000. The Northeast
Ohio Correction Center has a capacity of 2,015 inmates. According to the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, there are 330 people on the
private prison's staff.
Sep 23, 2017 vindy.com
At least 2 ICE detainees remain on hunger strike at CoreCivic's
prison on Hubbard-Youngstown Road
When Maria Almeida’s husband didn’t call her last Thursday, she thought
something was wrong. Almeida lives in Philadelphia, but her husband has been
detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center, a privately run prison on Hubbard Road on the North
Side, since July 19. They talk on the phone daily, and she makes the
seven-hour drive from Philadelphia to visit him on Saturdays. When she
finally talked to him Sept. 15, he told her there had been a hunger strike to
protest conditions at the prison. Almeida’s husband was not on a hunger
strike, but she said he was still under lockdown 23 hours a day from Thursday
through Sunday. Guards put notes on cell windows reading, “Enjoy your one
hour today to shower, eat and call your family,” she said. For 27 hours
beginning Thursday, detainees were not provided with food and drink, she
added. “It’s inhuman,” Almeida said. As of Friday, two detainees remained
under ICE’s hunger-strike protocols, a spokesman for the agency said. The
protocols apply to detainees who have gone without eating for 72 hours and
ensure they receive close medical supervision. They continue to have access
to food at designated meal periods and are provided an adequate supply of
drinking water, the spokesman added. He neither confirmed nor denied that the
facility was placed on lockdown or any detainees had been hospitalized.
Sep 6, 2017 vindy.com
Inmate hospitalized
Police are investigating after an inmate at the private prison on the
East Side was hospitalized Sunday morning. Reports said officers were called
about 3:55 a.m. to the prison on Youngstown- Hubbard Road, where they were
told the inmate was beaten in a cell by another inmate. The victim, a
31-year-old man, is being treated at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
Apr 19, 2016 cleveland.com
Jimmy Dimora agrees to settle lawsuit over slip-and-fall at Youngstown
prison
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora has
agreed to settle his lawsuit against a private prison company over a 2012
slip and fall at a Youngstown prison. U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson in
Youngstown signed an order last week that said Dimora and Corrections
Corporation of America "have reached a settlement in principle."
This means that a general idea of a settlement has been reached but a deal
may not be finalized. Pearson dismissed the lawsuit "without
prejudice," meaning that the case can be refiled should a deal fall
through. Details of the agreement were not immediately available. Attorneys
for Dimora and Corrections Corporation of America did not return phone calls.
Dimora, 60, fell in April 2012 at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center. At
the time, he was jailed for less than two months and had not yet been
sentenced for his federal racketeering and corruption convictions. He is now
serving 28 years in a federal prison in West Virginia for racketeering and
corruption charges. His lawsuit sought at least $50,000 in damages from
Corrections Corporation of America. Pearson in March largely ruled in
Dimora's favor when the prison company asked her to dismiss the lawsuit.
Pearson's order makes mention of a dispute over unpaid legal fees between
Dimora and Lillie & Holderman, a Cleveland law
firm that represented the former county commissioner at the beginning of his
corruption case. The firm is seeking to collect on a nearly $80,000 judgment,
plus interest, filed against Dimora in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. A
lawsuit filed in March is asking a judge to have Corrections Corporation of
America put part or all of the settlement toward the judgment before giving
any money to Dimora. Corrections Corporation of America lost its contract
with the Federal Bureau of Prisons to house its inmates at the Youngstown
facility in 2014. The U.S. Marshals Service still uses the facility to house
inmates who are awaiting trial or sentencing.
Mar
5, 2016 cleveland.com
Jimmy Dimora's slip-and-fall lawsuit should go to trial, judge rules
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — A federal judge on Friday allowed a lawsuit filed by
former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora over a slip-and-fall at a
Youngstown prison to proceed to trial.
U.S. District Judge Benita Pearson wrote in a nine-page order that a
jury should decide whether Corrections Corporation of America, the private
company that owned the prison, is liable for the injuries he suffered when he
slipped in puddle. The company argued that the pool of water was "open
and obvious," and that it was not required to warn inmates of a
potential hazard. Pearson wrote that "the question of whether something
is open and obvious cannot always be decided as a matter of law simply because
it may have been visible." Dimora fell in April 2012. At the time, he
had been incarcerated for less than two months and had not yet been sentenced
for his federal racketeering and corruption convictions. He is now serving 28
years in a federal prison in Victorville, California in the Mojave Desert.
His lawsuit, seeks at least $50,000 in damages from Corrections Corporation
of America, and accused the company of negligence and emotional distress.
Pearson dismissed the of emotional distress charge and wrote that that Dimora
abandoned the claim in his filings. She wrote that the private prison
company's actions "did not rise to the level of being so extreme and
outrageous 'as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency..." The
company originally argued that Dimora did not comply with the prison's
grievance policy and that his case should be dismissed. Pearson noted in her
opinion that Corrections Corporation of America did not originally raise this
as a possible defense when it responded to Dimora's lawsuit. The company dropped the argument in a filing
in February. Corrections Corporation of America lost its contract with the
federal prison bureau to house its inmates at the Youngstown facility in
2014. The U.S. Marshals Service still uses the facility to house inmates who
are awaiting trial or sentencing.
May 29, 2015 wfmj.com
Jobs end for more than 100 at Youngstown private
prison
The end of May means the end of employment for 103
employees of the privately operated prison in Youngstown. The Corrections Corporation
of America is laying off workers at the Hubbard Road prison this weekend when
a contract with the Federal Bureau of Prisons expires at midnight Saturday.
CCA says that thirty employees have either transferred permanently, or are
working on temporary assignment at other facilities operated by the company.
When the Bureau of Prisons announced in December that a CCA competitor was
awarded the contract to house federal prisoners, approximately 400 people
were still employed. CCA still has a contract with the U.S. Marshals Service
to house prisoners awaiting trial that won't expire until at least 2018.
May
6, 2015 vindy.com
With
the city of Youngstown bracing for a bumpy fiscal ride next year, Mayor John
A. McNally had little choice but to tackle one of the big-ticket items in the
budget. However, aware of the explosive nature of the issue, McNally showed
foresight in engaging all interested parties in the development of a
solution. The result: Significant changes to employee health insurance that
will result in the cost of the plan going up less than it would have had
nothing been done. But doing nothing was not an option for city government,
considering that the revenue streams for 2016 and 2017 are expected to be
drier than they are this year. Youngstown is no different from other older
urban communities: The population is declining; the income-tax base is
shrinking; neighborhoods are being undermined by the growing number of
dilapidated structures and crime; and, the public school system is a
contributing factor to the exodus of families with school-age children. The
mayor previously has talked about some of the red flags the city of
Youngstown must pay attention to, including: The loss of income tax revenue
as a result of the private prison on Hubbard Road losing a major U.S. Bureau
of Prisons’ contract to house federal inmates. The expected closing of the
U.S. Postal Service’s distribution center. The furlough of workers at the new
Vallourec Star steel-pipe making, state-of-the-art
complex on Route 422 due to the fact that oil and gas exploration has taken a
hit with the steep drop in oil and gas prices. Vallourec
Star opened with the expectation of riches for the cities of Youngstown and
Girard, not only because of the agreements reached, but because of the
company’s average yearly wage of $50,000-plus. Against that bleak financial
backdrop, Youngstown city government has no choice but to cut costs. And
since most of the operating budget goes for employee wages and benefits, the
need to lower that tab is obvious.
MAYOR’S
COMMENTS: In
commenting on the changes to the health insurance plan, Mayor McNally said,
“I’m very appreciative of the work done by all of the committee members.
People expect us in the public sector to pay more attention to health care
costs, and we did. This allows our employees to make decisions that are best
for them and their families.” The mayor is absolutely right: Private-sector
taxpayers who have been bearing an increasing portion of the health care
costs — if health insurance is even offered by their employers — have long
wondered why their employees (public-sector workers) haven’t had to pay their
fair share for coverage. Indeed, one of the most important changes made to
the city’s health insurance policy has to do with deductibles. Until last
week when city council and the board of control approved the new plan,
developed by a 17-member management-employee health-insurance review
committee, city workers did not pay a medical deductible. How is that
possible? Because it’s the public sector — which has yet to catch up with the
private sector when it comes to sharing the cost of benefits with the
employer. That said, we do applaud Youngstown government for recognizing that
the status quo — read that, lucrative wages and benefits — is no longer
sustainable. The changes to the health insurance plan must be only the first
step in a complete reassessment of the benefit package.
Apr 12, 2015 vindy.com
If
you make a deal with the Devil there will be Hell to pay
Absent
an unequivocal state- ment from the chief executive
officer of Corrections Corporation of America about the future of its prison
in Youngstown, city officials should err on the side of caution and prepare
for the worst. Why? Because CCA’s recent announcement that 185 employees
would be terminated May 30 at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center was
couched in language that must have given government officials cold sweats.
Indeed, Mayor John A. McNally would do well to instruct the finance
department to calculate the economic loss to the city and the region if the
2,015-bed facility closed its doors. And before we’re criticized for
indulging in idle speculation, consider this fact: The mayor received a
letter from Atty. Andrea Cooper, CCA’s senior director of human-resources
compliance, that not only served notice of the permanent reduction in
payroll, but also explained that the termination of the 185 employees is
being triggered by a “facility closing.” The letter was issued to meet the
requirements of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
[WARN], which requires 60 days’ notice of closings and layoffs at large
facilities. Atty. Cooper sought to walk back the contents of her letter when
questioned by The Vindicator, saying that “the facility itself is not
shuttering” because CCA has another contract to house federal inmates. She
then referred further questions to Jonathan Burns, the Nashville-based
corporation’s senior manager of public affairs. But rather than provide
reassurance, Burns’ comments simply added to the uncertainty. He said CCA
would cancel the WARN notice and cancel or reduce the 185 furloughs if the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road gets sufficient inmates
from other sources to replace the 1,400 federal inmates who have been
transferred to two other facilities. The federal Bureau of Prisons decided
not to renew its contract with CCA. The company has a separate U.S. Marshals
Service contract to house 580 inmates at NEOCC. It expires Dec. 31, 2018.
CLEAR STATEMENT NEEDED Given all of the uncertainty
surrounding the future of the 18-year-old facility, we believe a clear
statement from Damon Hininger, president and CEO,
is necessary. The city of Youngstown has been a good host, and despite some
major operational and management problems at the private prison, City Hall
has remained steadfast in its support. Indeed, a majority of the residents
have welcomed the facility’s presence because of the jobs that have been
created and the economic impact it has had in the Mahoning Valley. It’s not
just the income taxes paid by the several hundred employees, but the
multiplier effect of the $12.7 million payroll and $4.3 million in property
taxes and for utilities and local goods and services. There’s a lot at stake,
which is why we have been harshly critical of CCA for not making public the
reasons given by the federal bureau for not renewing the contract. How can
this region help the company secure other government contracts if we don’t
know why Washington decided to go in a different direction? Was cost a
factor? Did the NOCC fail to meet federal standards? Or, was it political? As
we have pointed out previously, this area has two members of Congress who are
in a position to act on CCA’s behalf, but Democrat Tim Ryan of Howland,
D-13th, and Republican Bill Johnson of Marietta, R-6th, need information
about what’s going on with CCA and with the private prison in Youngstown.
It’s time for full disclosure. CCA owes that much to the people of the
Mahoning Valley.
Apr
12, 2015 vindy.com
Absent an unequivocal state- ment from the chief
executive officer of Corrections Corporation of America about the future of
its prison in Youngstown, city officials should err on the side of caution
and prepare for the worst. Why? Because CCA’s recent announcement that 185
employees would be terminated May 30 at the Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center was couched in language that must have given government officials cold
sweats. Indeed, Mayor John A. McNally would do well to instruct the finance
department to calculate the economic loss to the city and the region if the
2,015-bed facility closed its doors. And before we’re criticized for indulging
in idle speculation, consider this fact: The mayor received a letter from
Atty. Andrea Cooper, CCA’s senior director of human-resources compliance,
that not only served notice of the permanent reduction in payroll, but also
explained that the termination of the 185 employees is being triggered by a
“facility closing.” The letter was issued to meet the requirements of the
federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act [WARN], which
requires 60 days’ notice of closings and layoffs at large facilities. Atty.
Cooper sought to walk back the contents of her letter when questioned by The
Vindicator, saying that “the facility itself is not shuttering” because CCA
has another contract to house federal inmates. She then referred further
questions to Jonathan Burns, the Nashville-based corporation’s senior manager
of public affairs. But rather than provide reassurance, Burns’ comments
simply added to the uncertainty. He said CCA would cancel the WARN notice and
cancel or reduce the 185 furloughs if the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center
on Hubbard Road gets sufficient inmates from other sources to replace the
1,400 federal inmates who have been transferred to two other facilities. The
federal Bureau of Prisons decided not to renew its contract with CCA. The
company has a separate U.S. Marshals Service contract to house 580 inmates at
NEOCC. It expires Dec. 31, 2018. CLEAR STATEMENT NEEDED Given all of the uncertainty surrounding the future of the
18-year-old facility, we believe a clear statement from Damon Hininger, president and CEO, is necessary. The city of
Youngstown has been a good host, and despite some major operational and
management problems at the private prison, City Hall has remained steadfast
in its support. Indeed, a majority of the residents have welcomed the
facility’s presence because of the jobs that have been created and the
economic impact it has had in the Mahoning Valley. It’s not just the income
taxes paid by the several hundred employees, but the multiplier effect of the
$12.7 million payroll and $4.3 million in property taxes and for utilities
and local goods and services. There’s a lot at stake, which is why we have
been harshly critical of CCA for not making public the reasons given by the
federal bureau for not renewing the contract. How can this region help the
company secure other government contracts if we don’t know why Washington
decided to go in a different direction? Was cost a factor? Did the NOCC fail
to meet federal standards? Or, was it political? As we have pointed out previously,
this area has two members of Congress who are in a position to act on CCA’s
behalf, but Democrat Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, and Republican Bill Johnson
of Marietta, R-6th, need information about what’s going on with CCA and with
the private prison in Youngstown. It’s time for full disclosure. CCA owes
that much to the people of the Mahoning Valley.
Mar
31, 2015 wkbn.com
Northeast
Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown, Ohio has lost its federal contract
YOUNGSTOWN,
Ohio (WKBN) – Youngstown’s private prison, the Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center, will lose 185 jobs by the end of May. According to the Tribune
Chronicle, the company that runs the prison, the Corrections Corporation of
America, sent a letter to Youngstown Mayor John McNally saying it had to lay
off workers because it lost its contract with the government to keep inmates
at the Hubbard Road prison. Around 400 employees work at the facility. The
prison will remain open with about half the employees it has now, guarding
inmates the U.S. Marshals bring in while they wait to go on trial. Nashville,
Tennessee-based Corrections Corporation of America learned Dec. 29 that it
had lost its contract with the Bureau of Prisons to another private company.
However, the federal contract with the U.S. Marshals Service doesn’t expire
until the end of 2018.
Aug
23, 2014 wkbn.com
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – State Rep. Bob Hagan now has a better idea of why
inmates at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown staged a
demonstration last week. On Friday, Hagan, D-Youngstown, met with the warden,
reviewed incident video and personally talked with six inmates. The entire
meeting took about 2.5 hours. He is part of the Ohio Correctional Institution
Inspection Committee. He said there are three issues inmates are concerned
about: Health care, food quality and high prices at the commissary. “Very
difficult for one inmate who made $27 a month to pay $4.50 for a jar of
peanut butter and their costs were really just knocking them out,” Hagan
said. The prices are set by Corrections Corporation of America, which
operates the prison. Hagan said prisoners are entitled to basic human rights,
and as a member of the committee he has to make sure employees, inmates and
people on the outside are treated fairly and protected. One of Hagan’s
concerns was why people on the outside did not know what was going on during
the demonstration. The warden also promised Hagan he would let him know of
any incidents. There will be a follow up visit in December to see if improvements
have been made. “To make sure there are no more uprisings, that people are in
a peaceful way, those that protest are in fact given the opportunity to in
fact say and do what they have to do to make sure they are treated fairly,”
Hagan said. He said he watched video of the non-violent demonstration several
times and counted three times the warden talked with inmates in the yard.
Aug 21, 2014 vindy.com
Mayor
John McNally met Wednesday with officials from the private prison where last
week prisoners staged a protest, regarding proper notification procedures.
Under the city’s agreement with Corrections Corporations of America, the
Nashville- based company that runs the prison on the city’s East Side, the
city is to be notified immediately of any unusual events, McNally said. The
police chief and law director also are to receive a written report within 24
hours, he said. Although those steps weren’t followed last week, McNally said
the company assured him proper steps will be followed should future events occur.
The protest dealt with inmates’ issues with the quality of healthcare and
food at the facility, the mayor said.
Aug
17, 2014 wytv.com
YOUNGSTOWN,
Ohio (WYTV) – The Ohio Correctional Inspection Committee will tour the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center (CCA) in Youngstown in the wake of an
inmate demonstration earlier this week. A meeting was held Friday between
Youngstown Mayor John McNally, State Representative Bob Hagan and CCA
officials to discuss Tuesday’s incident where about 140 inmates refused to
come in from a recreation area in protest to inmate treatment and food
service at the prison. The demonstration ended peacefully several hours later.
Hagan and McNally discussed the closed-door meeting with reporters saying it
was “cordial” and new procedures have been set in place. “There were some
things they did not do right. From this point forward, there is a clear
understanding that they are going to do everything that is required of them,
both at the state level and the contractual level at the city,” Hagan said. A
contract between the city and CCA requires prison officials to call police
immediately when disturbances or other unusual events take place. It took CCA
officials almost 24 hours to contact city officials after Tuesday’s incident.
Hagan, who sits on the Ohio Correctional Institution Inspection Committee,
attempted to enter the prison shortly after the protest but was turned away.
He said after Friday’s meeting, CCA officials assured him that he would be
welcome to sit in on any investigation or interviews regarding the matter.
Lawmakers sitting on the Ohio Correctional Institution Inspection Committee
will tour the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Friday, August 22.
August
15, 2014 vindy.com
Mayor
John A. McNally is meeting today with representatives from Corrections
Corporation of America to talk about the company’s obligation to report
information to the city in “unusual events.” McNally said he certainly thinks
the event, which started about 2 p.m. Tuesday and continued to 4 a.m.
Wednesday, in which 140 inmates at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on
Hubbard Road refused to leave the prison yard in protest, qualifies as an unusual
event. CCA, based in Tennessee, owns NEOCC, and is one of two privately owned
prisons in the state. The city found out about the incident when the aunt of
an inmate at NEOCC contacted the police department, and the department
contacted the prison. “The way things happened isn’t the way it’s supposed to
happen,” McNally said. “We want to remind CCA of their obligations to the
city under the terms of the agreement.” It’s especially important to do this
now with a new police chief and law director, the mayor added. The agreements
have been in place for 12 or 13 years, he said. After the meeting, McNally
said he believes “the city will receive the type of notification it should
from CCA in the future.” The notification issue hasn’t come up because there haven’t
been major issues at the prison, he said. Up to this point, CCA
representatives have declined to provide an explanation for the inmates’
refusal to leave the prison yard. State Rep. Robert Hagan of Youngstown,
D-58th, said the prison is investigating the incident. Hagan is a member of
the Ohio General Assembly’s Correctional Institution Inspection Committee.
Hagan went to the prison Wednesday and attempted to speak with the inmates
but was rebuffed so he wouldn’t interfere with the prison’s investigation.
The American Civil Liberties Union is working against attempts by CCA to
secure a new federal contract to house inmates at the prison. The pact
expires May 15, 2015. Mike Brickner from the ACLU in Cleveland said the
organization has been made aware of issues at the penal institutions,
including a lack of programming for inmates, little training for staff, poor
food and a lack of understanding of the rules by both inmates and staff.
Aug
14, 2014 vindy.com
Questions
are being raised after a number of prisoners staged a protest at the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road. Approximately 140 inmates
refused to leave the recreation yard for 14 hours, though prison officials
said the situation ended peacefully early Wednesday. The private facility
provided scant answers to media inquiries about the episode, however. The
aunt of one of the inmates and a local politician are among those asking
questions. Corrections Corporation of America, which owns NEOCC, said in a
statement: “Overnight, staff at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center
secured a peaceful resolution to an incident in which a group of inmates on
the smaller recreation yard refused orders to return to their cells. All
inmates have now peacefully exited the recreation yard and are secured in
their cells. “At no time did any incidents of violence occur, and the
community was not in danger. All staff and inmates are accounted for. The
facility is secured and remains in lockdown as a precautionary measure while
an investigation is conducted. Facility management notified its partner, the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, and kept officials apprised through the duration
of the incident.” CCA has declined to provide any additional comment. State
Rep. Robert Hagan of Youngstown, D-58th, a member of the Ohio General
Assembly’s Correctional Institution Inspection Committee, was able to enter
the prison Wednesday. Hagan said officials inside told him anywhere from 40
to 240 prisoners were involved and the protest lasted from 2 p.m. Tuesday
until 4 a.m. Wednesday. “I attempted to interview the spokesman for the
prisoners, but the warden nixed that,” he said. “He said I wasn’t going to be
allowed to interfere with their investigation.” Hagan said he wished he had
been able to get more information. “I’m not satisfied. We need more
transparency,” he said. The CIIC plans to conduct a investigation of the NEOCC within the next few
weeks to find out more, Hagan said. The American Civil Liberties Union has
had anonymous conversations with current and past NEOCC employees who
acknowledge the same issues that inmates have, said Mike Brickner from the
ACLU in Cleveland. The issues include a lack of programming for inmates,
little training for staff, poor food and a lack of understanding of the rules
by both inmates and staff, he said. Warden Mike Pugh spoke to the Youngstown
Police Department about 5:15 p.m. Tuesday and informed the city that while
the inmates were refusing to leave the yard, the situation was peaceful and
the prison did not need any assistance, according to a YPD report. The call
from YPD was initiated after a call to the police from Ligia Cabrera of the
Bronx, N.Y., whose nephew, Hector Mercedes, is an inmate. Cabrera said her
nephew called her Tuesday and said there was a riot going on at the prison. “He
asked me to call the police, media — anyone who could get them some help —
and then the call disconnected,” Cabrera said. “I called the prison today,
and they told me he was safe and still there, but that was all that they
could tell me.” Cabrera said she was considering coming to Youngstown to
check on the condition of her nephew and was still hoping to get more
information. Neither city police nor the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Office was
called to assist. The Ohio State Highway Patrol did have a supervisor at the
prison to provide assistance if needed, but it was not. If any inmates are to
be charged in connection with Tuesday’s events, those charges would have to
come from either the YPD or FBI because the NEOCC is a private prison. The
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction was made aware of the
episode but has little information because the prison does not house any
state inmates, said JoEllen Smith, ODRC spokeswoman. All the men housed at
the prison are federal inmates. The state has a working relationship with
private prisons, and they do share information, she said. CCA is seeking a
renewal for the NEOCC contract with the federal government to house inmates
at the site. The contract expires May 31, 2015. The ACLU opposes the contract
renewal. Brickner said the lack of information that is available in episodes
such as Tuesday’s is part of the reason why the organization opposes a new
pact. “Frankly, one of the problems with private facilities is that you can’t
get information in situations like this,” he said. There are times when
something serious will happen at a private prison, and because of the
secrecy, the community will have no idea that something occurred, Brickner
said. There would be considerably more information available about what
happened at NEOCC if it had occurred at a state-run prison, he said. If there
were a critical incident, “there would be an administrative and potentially a
criminal investigation completed. There would also be an after-action review
conducted to review any actions taken to restore order,” Smith said.
“Typically, when dealing with prisons, you get two stories: one from inmates
and another from corrections officers,” Brickner said. Brickner pointed to a
federal lawsuit filed by inmate Christopher Oguaju
as a good example of the alleged issues at the site. Oguaju
filed the suit on his own, and the ACLU is not involved in the case, Brickner
said. The lawsuit complains about inadequate staffing at the prison and
improper care for inmates with medical conditions, and says inmates are
abandoned and unsupervised in some areas because of low staffing numbers. Oguaju’s lawsuit further claims the low staffing has made
the facility dangerous due to the presence of suspected gang members from
various Mexican drug cartels and puts unaffiliated inmates in risk of
physical harm.
Aug
13, 2104 vindy.com
Northeast
Ohio Correctional Center went on lockdown status late Tuesday afternoon after
a group of inmates in the prison’s recreation yard refused orders to return
to their cells. The private prison at 2240 Hubbard Road is operated by
Community Corrections Association based in Nashville, Tenn. Candace Rivera,
the prison’s public information officer, said in a statement shortly after 6
p.m. that all staff and inmates were accounted for and facility management
communicated with inmates “to resolve the matter peacefully.” The statement
says there were no incidents of violence, the facility was secured, and “the
community was not in danger.” According to Vindicator archives, the prison’s
contract with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons is to house 1,507 immigrant
prisoners at NEOCC, and it expires May 31, 2015. The prison has been urging
residents to contact politicians to support a contract renewal. The prison
holds 2,148 inmates, according to last year’s state inspection report, and
employs 443, operating on a $20 million payroll. It opened in 1997. The
American Civil Liberties Union, however, is seeking an end to the U.S. Bureau
of Prisons’ contract with NEOCC. Its objection is based on a national report
alleging abuse at CCA prisons in Texas, including isolation, lack of
appropriate medical care, overpopulation, lack of prisoner programming and
recreation, restrictions of family visits, a culture of secrecy and a lack of
accountability. The statement issued by the prison Tuesday said “a group of
inmates on the smaller recreation yard refused orders to return to their
cells.” Residents of nearby streets, Wydestreet
Avenue and Trussit Avenue, reported not seeing
anything out of the ordinary. A 2013 state inspection conducted by eight
members of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee found the
facility had few dangerous incidents because it houses a low-security inmate
population. However, the report noted that NEOCC regularly assigns three
inmates per cell, which could pose a security risk.
Jun
4, 2014 wfmj.com
A
counselor who works at a private prison in Youngstown faces federal charges
for allegedly engaging in, or attempting to engage in sex acts with a federal
inmate. Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern
District of Ohio, announced that a federal grand jury returned a one-count
indictment charging Nicole White, age 34, of Boardman, Ohio, with sexual
abuse of a ward. The indictment charges that on or about October 2013, White,
who was a Correctional Counselor at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center,
engaged and attempted to engage in sexual acts with a federal inmate at the
facility. White is scheduled to be arraigned on June 18 in U.S. District
Court in Youngstown. If convicted, the defendant’s sentence will be
determined by the Court after review of factors unique to this case,
including the defendant’s prior criminal record, if any, the defendant’s role
in the offense and the characteristics of the violations.
May
6, 2014 The Columbus Dispatch
Corrupt
Cleveland politician Jimmy Dimora figures someone owes him money for injuries
he says he suffered in a fall in prison. But a negligence lawsuit filed by
Dimora’s lawyer last month in the Ohio Court of Claims against the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction aside, the agency doesn’t owe him
a cent. The ex-Cuyahoga County commissioner, serving 28 years on federal
racketeering and bribery convictions, says he was hurt at the privately
operated Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown. Dimora’s lawsuit
seeking more than $50,000 in damages from the state claims that the prison,
owned by the Corrections Corp. of America, “operates in accordance with a
contractual agreement” with the state prison system. The state has no
contract with the private prison, said state prisons spokeswoman JoEllen
Smith. Dennis Lieberman, a Dayton lawyer representing Dimora, did not respond
yesterday to messages seeking comment. Corrections Corp. of America did, however,
buy the Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Ashtabula County from the
prisons department and houses prisoners under a contract with the state.
Dimora, 58, says he received unspecified injuries on May 4, 2012, when he
fell because of a puddle of water caused by a leaking roof. He seeks damages
including medical expenses and infliction of emotional distress. After suing
the state, Dimora filed a near-identical lawsuit in Mahoning County against
the private prison and the Corrections Corp. of America. The company did not
respond to requests for comment. Dimora, whose bid for a new trial recently
was rejected by the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, now
is being held in the medium-security Victorville federal prison in
California. He was convicted in 2012 of soliciting and accepting expensive
meals, home improvements, trips and other items, some as part of an FBI
sting, from people seeking to do business with the county.
July
20, 2013 vindy.com
The Corrections Corp. of America hopes local residents will write to their
elected officials soon, urging them to support continued use of CCA’s
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center to house U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmates.
That’s because CCA must submit a competitive proposal to the bureau by Aug. 15
if it wants to continue to house the federally convicted and sentenced
undocumented immigrants BOP sends to the local correctional center on Hubbard
Road. Those inmates constitute about 75 percent of the approximately 2,000
prisoners housed at NEOCC. CCA’s contract with BOP to house those inmates
here at $69.72 per inmate per day for 1,507 inmates expires May 31, 2015, BOP
said. In a letter to Mayor Charles Sammarone, CCA
officials said the loss of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons contract here would
cause the elimination of most of the 418 jobs at NEOCC. The Hubbard Road
prison has an annual payroll of $21.7 million, the letter said. “Since 2005,
NEOCC has paid almost $157 million in local payroll, almost $14 million on
utilities and more than $10 million in local taxes — for a total direct local
economic impact of more than $180 million,” the letter said. The letter said
CCA fears BOP may consolidate NEOCC’s current contract with another contract
held by the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Phillipsburg, Pa., which
is in rural central Pennsylvania. That contract, which expires April 1, 2016,
is for 1,820 inmates at $65.22 per inmate per day, BOP said. “One facility
will receive the contract, and the other will have to scale back or close,”
CCA brass told the mayor. One of the company’s challenges will be to address
“BOP’s interest in reducing costs,” they added. Chris Burke, BOP public
affairs specialist, said the agency is not consolidating contracts, but it
needs about 2,000 inmate beds in the region consisting of Ohio, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and New York. “All proposals are evaluated
based on price and nonprice evaluation criteria,” Burke said. “Award
selection will be made based on a best-value basis for the government,” he
added. Sammarone said he supported NEOCC when it
opened in 1997 and fully supports efforts to keep the federal prisoner
housing contract here now. “I continue to support CCA. They hire many people
that are city residents, and they create jobs for the whole Youngstown
community,” Sammarone said. “Keeping this facility
open and operating at full capacity is important to me — but especially
important to those families who make a living there. I have expressed my
concerns with the federal Bureau of Prisons and urged them to give the NEOCC
proposal its strongest consideration,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Ryan of Niles,
D-13th. “In spite of local signs of economic strength, we still have too many
people unemployed and need to ensure that the Bureau of Prisons understands
the economic impact of their decision on the Mahoning Valley,” the
congressman said. “We feel confident that we can be competitive,” said Tony
Grande, chief development officer for the Nashville, Tenn.-based CCA. “In
many of these procurements, it comes down to pennies” of cost difference per
inmate per day between facilities, he added. Steven Owen, the corrections
corporation’s senior director of public affairs, said community support for
retention of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons inmates here will be important in the
federal government’s decision-making process. NEOCC is independently
accredited by the American Correctional Association, which Owen described as
“the gold standard in this country for correctional management.” Because the
BOP inmates already have been sentenced, the proximity of NEOCC to federal
courts in Youngstown, Akron, Cleveland and Pittsburgh isn’t likely to be a
major advantage for the Hubbard Road prison, said Bart VerHulst,
CCA’s vice president of federal partnership relations. “Unlike other industries
that you see come and go, we can’t pick up and go somewhere else,” Grande
said of the Youngstown prison, which he said likely would cost $120 million
to $150 million to replace. “We made a commitment to this community.”
October 19, 2012 Vindy.com
YOUNGSTOWN--A private-prison owner is appealing a judge’s decision that the
city didn’t violate laws when it enacted a $1-per-prisoner, per-day tax on
inmates at the lockup while the city filed a court complaint seeking to
collect $1.5 million from the company in back fees. The two cases are running
parallel paths in the 7th District Court of Appeals and in Mahoning County
Common Pleas Court. Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of
common pleas court ruled in May that the city didn’t violate the state or
federal constitutions or the city charter when city council approved
legislation to tax private prisons, effective December 2009. Corrections
Corporation of America, a for-profit company based in Nashville, Tenn., and
owner of Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road, filed a lawsuit
in January 2010 contending the city’s prison-tax ordinance violated laws.
CCA’s facility is the only private prison in the city, housing about 1,500
illegal immigrants convicted of felonies through a contract it has with the U.S.
Bureau of Prisons. CCA filed an appeal Sept. 13 in the appellate court of
Judge Krichbaum’s ruling. The city has until next
Thursday to file a brief in response. Meanwhile, the city filed a complaint
against CCA in common pleas court seeking to compel the company to pay about
$1.5 million in back fees and interest. CCA approached the city to settle the
matter for significantly less money than the $1-a-day amount it hasn’t paid
for nearly three years, said city Law Director Anthony Farris. Part of that informal
proposal also included paying a lot less in future fees, said Farris, who
didn’t have the figures available Thursday. The city rejected the offer,
Farris said. The city filed the complaint because even though Judge Krichbaum ruled against CCA, “we had to file a suit to
get the money,” Farris said. Steve Owens, CCA’s spokesman, said, “We believe
the $1-per-inmate tax imposed by the city council is not only invalid but
unwarranted, and we are pursuing the same due-process rights that are
afforded to all individuals and businesses. Our company believes we have a
compelling case to make, but we have not yet been given the opportunity to
present it.”
October 5th, 2012 Citybeat.com
Private Prison Violates State Rules. Audit finds Northeast Ohio prison in compliance
with only two-thirds of state standard. A recent audit of the Ohio prison
bought by Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) found the private prison
is only meeting 66.7 percent of the state’s standards. The report found a
total of 47 violations in the CCA-owned prison, which the state government
sold to CCA last year as part of a privatization push set out in Ohio’s
2012-13 budget. The news comes slightly more than two weeks after CityBeat published a story looking at the many problems
presented by Ohio’s policy to privatize prisons (“Liberty for Sale,” issue of
Sept. 19). “It was apparent throughout certain departments that DRC policy
and procedure is not being followed,” the audit said. “Staff was interviewed
and some stated they are not sure what to do because of the confusion between
CCA policy and DRC policy. Some staff expressed safety concerns due to low
staffing numbers and not having enough coverage. Other staff stated that
there is increased confusion due to all the staffing transitions.” The report
says “there has been a big staff turnover,” and only one staff person was
properly trained to meet Ohio Risk Assessment System standards. The audit
found that a workplace violence liaison wasn’t appointed or trained. Inmates
complained they felt unsafe and that staff “had their hands tied’” and “had
little control over some situations.” The local fire plan had no specific
steps to release inmates from locked areas in case of emergency, and local
employees said “they had no idea what they should do” in case of a fire
emergency. The audit also found all housing units provided less than the
required 25 square feet on unencumbered space per occupant. It found single
watch cells held two prisoners with some sleeping on the floor, and some
triple-bunked cells had a third inmate sleeping on a mattress on the floor.
Searches in general seemed to be a problem for CCA. Documentation showed that
contraband searches were only done 16 days in August. When the searches were
done, the contraband was not properly processed to the vault and was
sometimes left in desks. The private prison also could not provide
documentation that proved executive staff conducting weekly rounds to
informally observe living and working conditions among inmates and staff.
These findings, although major, are only the tip of the iceberg: Inmates
claimed laundry and cell cleaning services were not provided and CCA could
not prove otherwise, recreation time was not always allowed five times a week
in segregation as required, food quality and sanitization was not up to
standards, infirmary patients were “not seen timely,” patients’ doctor
appointments were often delayed with follow-ups rarely occurring, the
facility had no written confined space program, the health care administrator
could not explain or show an overall plan and nursing competency evaluations
were not completed before the audit was conducted. Many more issues were
found as well. The one bright spot in the report is ODRC found staff to be
“very professional, friendly and helpful during the audit.” Inmates were also
“dressed appropriately and found to be wearing their identification badges.”
June 7, 2012 The Vindicator
Remember when the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Youngstown’s North
Side was being mothballed because it lost its contracts to house prisoners
from Washington, D.C.? The warden at the time, Brian Gardner, issued this
appeal to city council: “We feel confident in asking your help in obtaining
contracts in an effort to keep 500 plus jobs in the Valley. We are not asking
for maximum security inmates here.” That was in May of 2001. The prison
closed, but then reopened in 2004 after the U.S. Bureau of Prisons awarded a
contract to Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, the parent
company of NOCC. How did that contract come about? Certainly not because CCA
had a magic wand or had the political muscle to flex in Washington. Here’s
what we said in an editorial published Dec. 26, 2004: “Two years ago, Ohio
Sen. Mike DeWine urged the U.S. government to buy the then mothballed private
prison on Hubbard Road in Youngstown because of the growing need for housing
federal inmates. Officials of the Bureau of Prisons weren’t enthusiastic.
Congress had authorized the construction of 12 new facilities, and that’s what
the bureaucrats in Washington seemed to want. “But DeWine, a member of the
Senate Appropriations and Judiciary committees, would not take ‘no’ for an
answer. He rallied local officials, including U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles,
D-17th, and Youngstown Mayor George M. McKelvey, opened lines of
communications with executives of Corrections Corporation of America … and
established a relationship with the decision-makers in the bureau of
prisons.” In December 2004, DeWine announced that the bureau of prisons had awarded
a contract to CCA resulting in 1,195 male prisoners classified as low
security being assigned to Youngstown. Most of the inmates are designated
“criminal aliens” because they entered the country illegally and committed
some type of federal crime. DeWine is now Ohio’s attorney general. CCA was to
be paid $129 million over the four-year term and was given three two-year
options. Why bring up the past? Because the private prison operator seems to
have forgotten what this region did to help it reopen the facility. That’s
the only explanation we can come up with for CCA’s rejection of a $1 per
prisoner tax imposed by city council in 2009. The company went to court
challenging the constitutionality of the tax. Court ruling -- Recently,
Mahoning County Common Pleas Judge R. Scott Krichbaum
ruled that the city did not violate the U.S. or Ohio constitutions or the
city’s home rule charter. But that isn’t the end of it. CCA intends to
appeal, which is the company’s right. However, we would remind the executives
in Nashville that when they needed this region’s help in reopening the
private prison, there was no hesitation. The support for the facility has
been unwavering. It is also worth noting that when Mahoning County had a
contract to house federal prisoners, it subcontracted with NOCC. The county
was paid $3 per prisoner by Corrections Corporation of America. Youngstown is
only asking for $1 a prisoner, and for the 2 1/2 years since the tax was
imposed, the tab is $1.3 million. That’s a pittance compared to what CCA is
earning through its contract with the federal government.
May 26, 2012 The Vindicator
A judge ruled the city didn’t violate any laws when it enacted a $1
per-prisoner, per-day tax on private prisons. The decision means Corrections
Corporation of America owes the city about $1.3 million for federal prisoners
at its Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road. But the company
will appeal, said Steve Owen, its spokesman. “We’re disappointed with the
ruling, and we do intend to pursue all of our procedural avenues, including
filing an appeal,” he said. Judge R. Scott Krichbaum
of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court ruled Tuesday for summary judgment in
favor of the city. “We’ve made it through the process, and [CCA] is 2 1/2
years behind on payments,” said city Law Director Anthony Farris. “We think
this is a fair fee imposed, and it should be paid. We’re looking for all of
the back money, but we’re willing to listen to what else they have to say.”
As a way to generate more income at a time when the city’s government was
facing serious financial challenges, city council approved legislation in
November 2009, effective Dec. 1 of that year, taxing private prisons in
Youngstown $1 a day for each convict it houses. Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center, the private prison owned by CCA, is the only facility that falls into
that category. The prison, which has a contract with the U.S. Bureau of
Prisons, houses about 1,500 illegal aliens convicted of felonies. In January
2010, Corrections Corporation of America, a for-profit company based in
Nashville, Tenn., filed a lawsuit contending the city ordinance violates the
U.S. and Ohio constitutions and the city charter. In his eight-page decision,
the judge said the city law doesn’t violate the federal or state constitutions,
or the city charter.
January 4, 2012 Salem News
Adolph Goodman, 33, Youngstown, was arrested at 12:38 a.m. Sunday for
escaping from the Corrections Corporation of America Correctional Facility in
Youngstown earlier that evening. He also had an active warrant out of
Delaware County, Pa., for a probation violation. he was turned over the
Mahoning County Sheriff's Office.
November 16, 2010 Columbus Dispatch
A woman who was held hostage by an escaped inmate at a Hilliard business in
2007 settled her lawsuit with a private-prison company and two guards today
after a week of testimony in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Karen Zappitelli and her husband, John, reached a confidential
settlement with Corrections Corporation of America and the guards as the
final witness for the couple was waiting to take the stand this morning, said
Rex Elliott, one of the couple's attorneys. "Today is a day where a
sense of relief has been provided," Elliott said. "This enables
them to close the book on this chapter in their lives." Lawyers for both
sides began negotiating this morning at the urging of Judge Michael J.
Holbrook. A spokesman for Corrections Corporation of America did not return a
message seeking comment. Mrs. Zappitelli, 45,
testified yesterday, detailing the three hours she spent as the hostage of
fugitive inmate Billy Jack Fitzmorris. He broke into her husband's accounting
business on April 2, 2007, at the end of a crime rampage that began when he
overpowered the two guards at a Youngstown hospital. When testimony ended
yesterday, jurors were hearing from one of two psychologists who diagnosed
Mrs. Zappitelli with post-traumatic stress
disorder. Mrs. Zappitelli said she has been plagued
by anxiety, nightmares, sleeping problems and a fear of being alone since the
incident. The lawsuit accused Corrections Corporation of America and the
guards, David Johnson and Brian Morgan, of negligence in Fitzmorris' escape
and sought monetary damages for the couple's emotional suffering.
November 16, 2010 Columbus Dispatch
After spending three hours as the hostage of an escaped inmate, Karen Zappitelli wanted nothing more than her old life back.
"It was like someone stamped freak on my forehead," she testified yesterday
in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. "I felt like a freak. ... What I
craved more than anything was normalcy." Zappitelli
spent nearly two hours on the witness stand in a civil lawsuit that she and
her husband filed against a private prison and two guards, accusing them of
negligence in the escape of Billy Jack Fitzmorris from a Youngstown hospital
on April2, 2007. Fitzmorris overpowered the guards, taking one of their guns,
and went on a crime rampage that ended at John Zappitelli's
accounting firm in Hilliard, where he kicked in the front door and took Karen
Zappitelli, who worked as the office manager,
captive. The only other employee at the Norwich Street building managed to
escape by jumping from a second-floor window. Karen Zappitelli,
45, remained calm and composed throughout her testimony, the same approach
that she credited with getting her through the hostage situation.
"(Fitzmorris) was totally irrational," she said. "He was a
mad, irrational, panicked, desperate man. ... All I could do was stay calm. I
didn't want to provoke him." At one point, she asked whether he was
Christian and told him she was praying "that we would be brought out of
the building alive." For most of the ordeal, they sat on the floor
upstairs, where he dragged her after breaking into the business. He sat
behind her, one leg wrapped around her, one hand clutching her jacket. He
used her cell phone to speak with family members and police negotiators. He
finally released her and surrendered after police brought him a pizza. Zappitelli said she has been plagued by sleeping
problems, nightmares and anxiety since that day. She testified that she
remains afraid of being alone, taking showers only if her husband can be in
the bathroom with her. "I feel very vulnerable, knowing there is no
safety in a locked door," she said. Defense attorney Dan Struck,
representing the guards and Corrections Corporation of America, asked a
series of questions designed to show that Zappitelli's
life today is much like it was before the incident. He showed pictures from
her Facebook page of her enjoying recent trips and holiday gatherings. Zappitelli said Fitzmorris told her that he didn't have a
gun, which he had left outside in a car, and assured his family members on
the phone that he wouldn't hurt her. The defense is expected to begin calling
witnesses today. It will be up to jurors to determine monetary damages if
they rule in favor of the Zappitellis.
November 10, 2010 Columbus Dispatch
Billy Jack Fitzmorris escaped custody in April 2007. More than three years
have passed since inmate Billy Jack Fitzmorris escaped from guards at a
Youngstown hospital and went on a crime rampage that ended with his capture
in central Ohio. The woman whom he took hostage at a Hilliard business
continues to suffer with "emotional scars that she will have
forever," her attorney told a Franklin County jury yesterday. Karen Zappitelli and her husband, John, both 45, are suing a
private-prison company and the officers who were guarding Fitzmorris when he
escaped on April 2, 2007. Corrections Corporation of America and the guards,
David Johnson and Brian Morgan, are responsible for turning the Zappitellis' lives upside down through their negligence,
attorney Rex H. Elliott said during opening statements in Common Pleas Court.
An attorney for the defendants said the company and the guards had no reason
to believe that Fitzmorris was an escape risk or was likely to hurt anyone.
The person responsible for Zappitelli's trauma was
Fitzmorris, who is not named in the lawsuit, said attorney Tim Bojanowski.
Also unnamed is the hospital, St. Elizabeth Medical Center, which he said
imposed conditions on the guards that helped lead to the escape. The trial in
the courtroom of Judge Michael J. Holbrook is expected to last at least two
weeks. If jurors rule in the couple's favor, it would be up to them to decide
how much money would be awarded.
May 11, 2010 WFMJ
A woman accused of assaulting a police officer at the scene of a school bus
accident last week has escaped from the Mahoning county jail. Officials said
Leslie Hood was released by a court order to a Corrections Corporation of
America facility Tuesday morning, but fled once she got there. Hood is
accused of driving on the sidewalk on Friday to get through an accident scene
involving a Howland school bus and a vehicle. Police said Hood bumped an
officer with her car twice. She is facing charges of aggravated assault,
obstruction of justice and misconduct on the scene of an emergency. A bench
warrant is being issued for Hood's arrest.
January 26, 2010 The Vindicator
Corrections Corp. of America, which operates the Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center on Hubbard Road, has sued the city, saying the city’s recently enacted
$1 per-prisoner per-day tax on private prisons violates the U.S. and Ohio
constitutions and the city charter. A deputy city law director, however, said
the prisoner accommodation tax ordinance city council passed last year is
valid. The Nashville-based CCA filed the lawsuit Friday in Mahoning County
Common Pleas Court, where the case is assigned to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum. No court hearing has been scheduled. The new
tax, which took effect Dec. 1, “discriminates against interstate commerce” in
violation of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, the lawsuit said.
Because all inmates at NOCC are prisoners or detainees of the U.S. Bureau of
Prisons or the U.S. Marshal’s Service, and CCA is acting as “an
instrumentality of the federal government,” the fee also violates the
intergovernmental tax immunity doctrine in the supremacy clause of the
Constitution, the suit says. The tax violates the equal-protection clauses of
the U.S. and Ohio constitutions because “the fee serves no legitimate public
purpose, and there is no rational basis for the discrimination between CCA
and any other entity housing prisoners within the city,” the suit says. The
tax also violates the city charter because council improperly enacted it as
an emergency measure and “because it is an occupational tax, which has not
been submitted to the electorate,” the corporation’s complaint says. The
lawsuit, filed on behalf of the corporation by Atty. Timothy J. Bojanowski of
Phoenix, asks the court to declare the tax unconstitutional and void it,
prohibit the city from collecting it, and bar the city from punishing the
corporation for not paying it. Last month, CCA sent the city a letter saying
the corporation objected to the tax and wasn’t going to pay it, the lawsuit
says. “This is entirely within our rights as a city to do this. It does not
violate the interstate commerce clause. ... There is no intent to penalize
interstate commerce,” said Anthony Farris, deputy city law director. The
ordinance was projected to generate slightly more than $500,000 annually for
the city’s general fund, which pays the city’s general expenses, including
those of police and fire protection, Farris said. “We believe we are entitled
to these proceeds,” Farris said, adding that the city hasn’t yet received any
revenue under this ordinance. In June 2009, council passed an emergency
ordinance imposing the tax for prisoners convicted of crimes occurring
outside Mahoning County, after the city unsuccessfully tried to negotiate
such a payment from CCA, Farris said. In response to the corporation’s
objections, council amended the ordinance in November to encompass all
convicted prisoners housed within the city by a private institution
regardless of where their crimes occurred, Farris said. “We analyzed it
again, and we wanted to make sure we were absolutely correct so that we would
prevail in this litigation should it occur. ... We wanted to make sure that
we were absolutely 100 percent right, which we are,” Farris explained. “Their
business brings prisoners — criminals — into the area. That’s something that
has to be addressed by all aspects of government. There are law-enforcement
issues with that. One has to maintain a state of readiness when you have a
large amount of criminals in your area, and we feel that that justifies this
fee,” Farris concluded.
December 8, 2008 The Vindicator
Mahoning County officials are concerned about the prospect of a direct
federal contract with the private prison on Hubbard Road to house
revenue-generating federal inmates. County officials fear such a contract may
cause a costly reduction after Jan. 1 in the number of federal inmates in the
Mahoning County jail. “We’re not going to be able to keep that jail open at
the capacity that it is right now,” without about 150 revenue-generating
prisoners, either from the federal government or the city, said county
Commissioner David N. Ludt. Officials of the county
commissioners’, prosecutor’s and sheriff’s offices went to Cleveland last
week, where they conferred in chambers with a panel of three federal judges
on this issue. County officials sought the meeting with the judges after the
Corrections Corp. of America informed them it intended to contract directly
with the federal government through the Office of the Federal Detention
Trustee to house federal prisoners at CCA’s Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center on Hubbard Road. The judges then ordered the county to file by Jan. 15
“a comprehensive audit” of county jail operations over the past 18 months.
This audit is to include the number and sources of its prisoners, and a
statement of revenue from the county sales tax and from federal and city
prisoners housed there, and how that revenue has been used. Judges Alice M.
Batchelder, David D. Dowd Jr. and Dan Aaron Polster
said they need this information before they can decide what, if any, action
to take. Sheriff Randall Wellington said his office will perform the audit.
Except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which still pays the old rate
of $68.84 a day, the federal government pays the county $80 per prisoner per
day for federal inmates it places in the county jail. The city pays $80 a day
for each misdemeanor prisoner it places in the county jail beyond its 71st
inmate. The total inmate capacity is 458 in the main jail and 96 in the
misdemeanor jail. As of midnight Wednesday, there were 423 inmates in the main
jail and 82 in the misdemeanor jail, for a total of 505. The federal judges
are overseeing compliance with a consent order that settled a federal class
action lawsuit won by county jail inmates. That lawsuit, filed in 2003,
alleged unconstitutionally crowded conditions prevailed in the jail. The
settlement requires that the jail be fully open — as it is now — and it
includes the arrangement for revenue-producing city and federal prisoners to
be housed there. Without an adequate number of revenue-producing inmates in
the jail, the county’s ability to keep the jail fully open is jeopardized,
said Glenn Kountz, president of Fraternal Order of
Police Lodge 141, which represents deputy sheriffs staffing the jail. “That’s
the quagmire we find ourselves in right now,” he observed. However, Kountz, who attended the Cleveland meeting, said the
federal judges reported the U.S. Marshals they spoke to expressed no
intention to remove federal inmates from the jail. Pete Elliott, U.S. marshal
for the Northern District of Ohio, told The Vindicator he does not intend to
remove federal inmates from the jail. “There is no crisis,” Wellington said,
adding that he foresees no disruption in the flow of federal prisoners to the
county jail from ICE or from U.S, marshals in northern or southern Ohio or
western New York. Wellington estimated his department now houses just under
150 federal inmates and 20 or fewer revenue-producing city prisoners. In May
2007, when the county resumed housing federal prisoners after a two-year
hiatus, the county derived $1,829,982 from housing federal and city
prisoners, of which $130,373 came from the city. So far this year, the county
has received $4,311,424 for its revenue-generating prisoners, of which
$1,066,535 came from the city. The $4.3 million represents more than 21
percent of the sheriff’s $20 million annual budget. In a court filing,
lawyers for the county and the prisoners who sued the county said the federal
government would no longer need an agreement with the county to house
prisoners in its jail if Corrections Corp. of America contracted directly
with the federal government to house federal prisoners at CCA’s Hubbard Road
facility. “This decision may have a significant impact on the county’s
ability to house a sufficient number of federal prisoners and to thereby
comply with the consent order and with the boarding of prisoners agreement
with the city,” wrote Linette M. Stratford, assistant county prosecutor, and
Robert Armbruster, the lawyer for the prisoners who filed the lawsuit. The federal
government now has a contract with the county to house its prisoners in the
county jail and at NOCC. A change in federal law will allow the federal
government to enter into contract directly with a private company, such as
the Nashville-based CCA, to house federal prisoners. However, Wellington
said: “That doesn’t shut off the faucet for inmates coming here.” Ludt suggested federal officials may be seeking a
contract with CCA because they think that company will offer a lower rate
than the county. Founded in 2001, the Office of the Federal Detention Trustee
is part of the U.S. Department of Justice. A spokeswoman for the trustee said
her office has oversight over U.S. Marshals Service detention, but not over
Immigration and Customs Enforcement or U.S. Bureau of Prisons detention.
However, she said ICE and BOP sometimes send prisoners to detention centers
under trustee contracts.
September 12, 2008 WFMJ TV
A prisoner who took hostages at Saint Elizabeth Medical Center is on trial.
Billie Jack Fitzmorris is in Federal Court in Columbus, charged with escape.
Fitzmorris was serving time at Youngstown's private prison last year, but was
taken to Saint E's for an illness. Authorities say he took prison guards and
hospital workers hostage, then forced an Austintown man to drive him to
Columbus where he went on a bank robbery spree. He was eventually caught at a
suburban Columbus home, where he held a woman hostage.
March 18, 2008 The Huffington Report
At a moment when Democratic Party officials are urging voters to trust
unelected superdelegates to act in the country's best interests, HuffPost's OffTheBus investigation into the background of DNC
superdelegates reveals at least one appointed superdelegate who is as likely
to use his political connections for personal profit as for the greater good.
Take the case of Joseph F. Johnson, a member-at-large of the Democratic
National Committee from Chantilliy, Virginia -a
suburb of Washington D.C. -- and a superdelegate currently tilting toward
Hillary Clinton. Using his web of connections, Johnson successfully lobbied
for the construction of a private prison linked to a company on whose board
he sat; he managed to have that prison contract with other companies he was
linked to; and though the prison became a notorious and dangerous failure,
Johnson benefited personally, pulling in millions of dollars in stock options
and fees. Johnson first rose through the ranks of the Democratic machine in
the early 1990s, as executive director of Jesse Jackson's Rainbow PUSH
Coalition. He brought with him strong ties to D.C. government that he'd built
after his first job in the nation's capital, as chief of staff for the city
of Washington DC's city council head. He also managed Douglas Wilder's
successful campaign to become Virginia's first African-American governor in
1991. And Johnson advised Mark Warner on his successful 2001 gubernatorial
bid in Virginia. Johnson's reputation as a mover and shaker in D.C.
Democratic politics helped pave the way for his appointment to the board of Corrections
Corporation of America, the largest operator of private prisons in the
country. While serving in that position from 1996 to 1999, Johnson was
instrumental in convincing the local government in Washington, DC to pay CCA
to run a prison in Youngstown, Ohio for DC inmates, according to SEC filings
for the company. Meanwhile, two of Johnson's own companies, National
Corrections and Rehabilitation (NCRC) and MedCorr,
were contracted to provide employment rehabilitation and health services in
the same prison he helped establish. The private Ohio prison which Johnson
helped establish was, according to Youngstown's then-mayor, "a
nightmare." By 1998, there had been two fatal stabbings, 44 assaults,
and six escapes at the prison. A Department of Justice report found that
under CCA, the prison had "failed to accomplish the basic mission of
correctional safety;" and prisoners eventually collected $1.65 million
in damages and legal costs for their treatment under CCA. News reports traced
the problems at the prison to both CCA's management and D.C. Corrections'
practice of sending high-security inmates to the medium-security facility.
The problems, Johnson told the Washington Post at the time, weren't
"anyone's fault, it was just one of those things." Mr. Johnson
nonetheless profited from the deal, receiving $2.6 million in stock options
for his work linking CCA with officials in Washington, D.C. Calling his work
"instrumental" to their receipt of the contract, CCA said that Mr.
Johnson had "exceeded his duties and obligations" to the company
and also paid him $382,000 for his "consulting services" in helping
to arrange the deal, and $991,000 for NCRC's services in another CCA prison
in Texas. Johnson had also helped arrange for Washington, D.C. to sell one of
its local prisons to CCA in 1996. Local activists complained that procurement
rules had been skipped over to hand the bid to CCA, but the deal ultimately
went through, and CCA then managed the facility and used NCRC to provide
services to inmates. When the Washington Post asked Johnson if he considered
his dual roles as a conflict of interest, he replied, "Not in my
mind." Two years later, the Washington Post reported that CCA faced $1.3
million in fines for failing to provide services to inmates, including $536,000
in fines for failing to properly administer medications and another $77,400
for failing to provide vision services. The city's Department of Corrections,
despite being $8.8 million in the red, suspended most of the fines, according
to Post reports from the time. Johnson has over time expanded his list of
companies; NCRC is technically a subsidiary of his firm, the Johnson
Companies [www.jcmps.com]. Under that umbrella, Mr. Johnson also houses the
Houston-based Satellite Tracking of People, LLC (STOP), which deals in GPS
tracking devices for inmates and parolees; the Nashville-based ConnectGov, Inc, which coordinates distance learning; and
the National Preparedness Training Center, which trains first responders to
disasters.
September 7, 2007 The Vindicator
A corrections officer told police that she was punched by an inmate at
the private prison on Hubbard Road. Although the attack is alleged to have
occurred Aug. 30, the 41-year-old guard didn't file a report with city police
until Wednesday, saying she did so after contacting an attorney. She told
police that several individuals at Northeast Ohio Correctional Center had
advised her not to report what happened. Candace Rivera, prison spokesman,
said incidents that occur at the facility, which houses mostly illegal
criminal aliens for the federal Bureau of Prisons, are investigated
internally and the findings turned over to the FBI. She said any charge
against an inmate would be federal, not through the city prosecutor. Rivera said
employees are advised that they can contact city police if they want to file
a report but the jurisdiction is not the city's for an assault charge. Rivera
said the report of an assault is the first serious incident since the prison
reopened in 2005 with federal inmates.
May 25, 2007 The Vindicator
A one-time counselor at the private prison on Hubbard Road slipped cocaine,
cigarettes, cell phones and MP3 players to an inmate, the government said. A
federal grand jury in Cleveland issued a two-count indictment Thursday
charging Michael K. Pearson, 35, of Fairmont Avenue, with bribery and
providing contraband in prison. The indictment describes Pearson as a public
official who accepted cash from an inmate for the prohibited items. The
indictment alleges that Pearson brought contraband into the Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center from January through August 2006. Pearson could not be
reached. Pearson was hired at NOCC on Dec. 6, 2004, and fired Aug. 25, 2006,
for policy violations, said Candace Rivera, prison spokeswoman. Results of
the prison's investigation were turned over to the U.S. Department of Justice
Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. attorney's office in Cleveland.
Rivera said Pearson's duties as a counselor required him to act as liaison between
inmates and prison officials. Counselors take care of inmate's issues, such
as grievances, and make sure they complete work assignments, she said.
Special OIG Agent Terrence Hake described Pearson in a 12-page affidavit as a
correction officer/counselor. Hake said an informant inside the prison
revealed to guards that Pearson was bringing in prohibited items, such as
marijuana, cigarettes, radios, MP3 players, body building supplements and
heroin — for one inmate.
May 24, 2007 The Vindicator
An Austintown man who said he was carjacked by an escaped federal
prisoner in a St. Elizabeth Health Center parking lot and held at gunpoint
for three hours as the man drove him to the Columbus area, sued the hospital
and the prison. Richard Orto Sr., 53, of Innwood
Drive, filed the lawsuit this week against St. Elizabeth and the Corrections
Corp. of America's Northeast Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road. He
alleges the April 2 carjacking, spawned by neglect of proper security
precautions, caused him "extreme mental agony and emotional
distress." The suit, which seeks damages in excess of $25,000 and
demands a jury trial, was filed in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court by
Atty. John A. McNally III. Escape from hospital - The prisoner, Billy Jack
Fitzmorris, escaped from the hospital, where he was being treated, after
using a homemade knife to overpower, disarm and handcuff a NOCC guard, police
said. Fitzmorris took another guard and two nurses
hostage for about 15 minutes, donned the overpowered guard's uniform, fled
the hospital and carjacked Orto with the guard's .38-caliber revolver,
authorities said. Orto managed to escape when Fitzmorris stopped at a
Columbus area convenience store. Fitzmorris went on to rob two central Ohio
banks, wreck the car in Hilliard and hold two more women hostage, before
surrendering in Hilliard and being held in Franklin County jail on multiple
charges. Tina Creighton, hospital public information officer, said she
couldn't comment specifically on the suit, but she said the hospital
"strives to provide a safe and secure environment for all our visitors
and patients." Orto and a NOCC representative could not be reached to
comment.
May 20, 2007 Vindicator
A prison inmate accused of escaping during a hospital visit in Youngstown
was charged with robbing two banks and taking hostages before surrendering.
Billy Jack Fitzmorris, 34, also was indicted Thursday on three gun violations
in the April 2 escapade. Fitzmorris was at the Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center, the private prison on Hubbard Road, Youngstown, awaiting sentencing
on federal drug charges when he went to St. Elizabeth Health Center for
treatment. Investigators say he overpowered two guards, stole an officer's
gun and then drove a carjacked vehicle about 150 miles to the Columbus area,
where he robbed the banks of more than $50,000. Police said they chased
Fitzmorris to a house in Hilliard, where he kicked in the door and held two
women hostage. One escaped out of a second-floor window, and the second was
released when Fitzmorris surrendered about two hours later, officers said.
Fitzmorris could receive 45 years in prison when he's sentenced May 31 on the
earlier cocaine convictions. Authorities said they believe most of the money
from the bank robberies has been recovered.
April 3, 2007 AP
A Youngstown man said he tried to maintain calm conversation and keep an eye
out for a chance to make a getaway as he was driven across Ohio by an escaped
prison inmate accused of carjacking him at gunpoint after overpowering guards
at a hospital. "I just kept asking questions to take his mind off of
whatever he was going to do to me. I was trying to be his buddy because I
thought, 'You wouldn't hurt your buddy,'" Richard Orto said Tuesday.
"It was the only thing I could think of at the time, that the calmer he
was, the better I was." Orto said he was carjacked as he circled the lot
at St. Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center in Youngstown on Monday, looking for
a spot to park so he could pick up his mother, who was being discharged. He
said the carjacker approached the car and stuck a gun through the partially
open driver's side window and told him to slide into the passenger seat.
Billy Jack Fitzmorris, 34, an inmate at Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in
Youngstown, was being treated at the hospital when he overpowered prison
guards, stealing a gun from one of them, before he forced his way into Orto's
car, authorities said. Orto said the two spent the next three hours together.
Fitzmorris drove the Chevrolet Impala about 150 miles from Youngstown to the
suburbs of Columbus, where he was eventually arrested Monday afternoon after
he robbed two banks and holed up for hours in a house with a hostage,
authorities said. Throughout the drive, Fitzmorris kept the gun tucked
between his leg and the car's center console, Orto said. "As we drove
down we talked. He was nervous and I was trying to keep him happy so that I
could get my own skin out of there," Orto said. "He told me as long
as I was good, I would be released unharmed." Fitzmorris responded to
his questions, Orto said, and talked about getting away to a place with no
phones where he couldn't be found. Orto told him about his family and his
mother, hoping Fitzmorris would start to think of him as a family man. Orto
contemplated trying to escape when the car stopped at a few intersections,
but decided Fitzmorris and the gun were too close to take a chance. Finally,
Fitzmorris pulled into a shopping center in suburban Powell, got out of the
car and tucked the gun into the sleeve of his shirt, Orto said. "All
this time (in the car) I was thinking about how I was going to get
away," Orto said. "I just saw this as the best opportunity."
"I took my shot when I felt that he couldn't get it out," he said.
Figuring it would take Fitzmorris a few crucial seconds to get to the gun,
Orto said, he darted out of the car and ran across the parking lot into a UPS
store, where employees called 911. Orto's girlfriend drove down to Columbus
to pick him up Monday night after he finished talking to law enforcement officials.
While he said he's thankful he made it out unscathed, Orto thinks the
operators of the prison owe him an explanation for how Fitzmorris was able to
escape. "They've not contacted me, but I think they should," he
said.
April 3, 2007 AP
A report found that the private prison that housed an escaped Youngstown
inmate had an unusually high rate of inmates attacking other inmates. The
report by the state Correctional Institution Inspection Committee says the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center reported 44 inmate-on-inmate attacks in a
12-month period in 2005 and 2006. By contrast, the state reported a total of
305 such assaults for all 32 state facilities in 2005. The July 2006 report
also questioned the facility's 55 total inmate grievances for the same 12-month
period, calling it an extremely low figure for a prison. The report says a
low number of grievances can be a sign that inmates have lost faith in the
system for reporting problems.
April 3, 2007 The Enquirer
A police SWAT team and federal marshals captured an escaped convict from
Youngstown Monday after surrounding a home-office in Hilliard. No one was
hurt, police said. The armed convict took a woman hostage for about two hours
before his arrest. A second woman jumped from a second-floor window, according
to witnesses. Convict Billy Jack Fitzmorris, 34, robbed two banks, one in
Powell and another in Upper Arlington, after escaping from a hospital in
Youngstown earlier Monday, police said. Columbus police spotted his car on
Interstate 270 and chased him to Hilliard. Fitzmorris took a prison guard's
gun and uniform Monday morning after threatening him with a shank at St.
Elizabeth's Hospital. The blue and white uniform bore the insignia of
Corrections Corp. of America, the private prison operator. At least a dozen
officers from Columbus and the Franklin County Sheriff's Department entered
the ground floor of the Hilliard home - which doubled as an accountant's
office - with guns drawn. Fitzmorris was on the second floor, police said.
Hilliard schools were locked down during the incident at Norwich and Main
streets near I-270. Fitzmorris had been imprisoned in Youngstown for robbery,
burglary and possession of stolen property after a 1997 carjacking. Federal
officials said Fitzmorris "had nothing to lose" because he faces a
lengthy prison sentence for his multiple crimes.
July 17, 2006 Tribune Chronicle
A 32-year-old Warren man who police say sparked neighborhood manhunts over
sexual assaults last year faces potential life sentences for rape. Jury
selection is scheduled to get under way today for James L. Cline Jr., who has
remained in Trumbull County Jail for nearly a year in lieu of a $500,000
bond. Potential jurors have been called to the courtroom of Judge John M. Stuard for the trial that could run four or five days.
The case against Cline involved young girls in Niles and Warren who were
sexually attacked or molested on their way to or from school or near local
parks. Cline was taken into custody Sept. 14 on a parole violation after the
third teen reported she was attacked that morning on her way to East Middle
School, Warren police said. After the arrest, Niles police started building a
case against Cline since they said crimes there in July occurred in similar
fashion. In Warren, Cline was indicted for three attacks that occurred during
a seven-day span beginning Sept. 8. A Sept. 14 attack involved a 14-year-old
girl, and one day earlier a 13-year-old girl was attacked, also on her way to
East Middle School, police say. The first attack occurred to a 15-year-old
girl walking home from Warren G. Harding High School near the railroad tracks
at Woodland Avenue N.E. She told police the man surprised her from behind,
pulled her into a nearby wooded area and assaulted her, police say. In Niles,
on July 1, 2005, two 11-year-old girls told police they were in Kennedy Park
in the late afternoon when a man approached them, pulled out a gun and
ordered them to follow him into the woods near Mosquito Creek between
Fairhaven School and the park’s basketball courts. Police said the man
sexually assaulted both girls in a similar manner to the teens in Warren.
After the assault, the man ordered the girls to start walking. He turned his
back on them, the girls said, and they ran away. Authorities say when the
Niles assaults occurred, Cline was on a 48-hour furlough from Corrections
Corporation of America.
May 22, 2006 Forbes
Youngstown, Ohio has tried to ignite an economic revival-- by building
prisons. When the Ohio State Department of Corrections decided to move death
row to Youngstown's supermaximum security prison a
year ago, then mayor George McKelvey was part of the welcoming committee. The
city was already home to Ohio's most dangerous inmates, and there were
already three more prisons, two jails and two halfway houses in the
surrounding area. "Our community is grateful for its presence
here," McKelvey said of the move to add a lethal component, "and
the millions of dollars it contributes to our local economy." If only.
In fact, the metro region has been in decline since the shutdown of the
Youngstown Sheet & Tube's steelworks in 1977, the first of 50,000
industrial layoffs over the next decade. Turning to prison building over the
last ten years hasn't created the hoped-for economic salvation. Average
annual real income and job growth over the last five years have been
pitiful--negative 2.4% and negative 0.9%, respectively. Seeing little but
bleak opportunity, folks have been leaving the area at a rate of 0.4% a year.
About the only bright stat you can point to: The Youngstown-Warren-Boardman
area has a low crime rate--3,508 offenses per 100,000 people. Perhaps that's
because most of the ruffians are already in jail. Placing 198 out of 200
major metro regions, Youngstown wins our booby prize this year. Who thought
that backing the big house would lead to bigger times? It was Patrick Ungaro, Mayor McKelvey's predecessor, who, between 1993
and 1995, offered state officials and private-prison owner Corrections
Corporation of America free land and, in CCA's case, a seven-year 50% tax
abatement and new water and sewer lines. In return Youngstown builders and
suppliers got $127 million worth of contracts, the city received an annual
$895,000 boost in tax revenue and upward of 900 people obtained jobs as
guards, janitors, cooks and health care workers. The strategy seemed to work
for a while. The two prisons, along with the county jails, the halfway
houses, Warren state prison (which opened in 1992) and nearby Elkton's
federal prison (1997) created quite an industry. Between 1992 and 1997
Youngstown's gross metro product rose at an average 3.4% a year net of
inflation. The lift was not to last. Regional unemployment was a recent 6.7%,
down from 7.2% a year ago, thanks to upswings at metal manufacturers Exal Corp. and V&M Tube and at Kmart and Toys
"R" Us, which have warehouses there. The problem is that Youngstown
hasn't been able to attract much in the way of new ventures or growing
corporations to the area. Not for want of trying. In 2003 the Chamber of
Commerce attempted to lure Boeing, to build its 787. The aerospace giant
opted out, officially because a coastal city made better sense for receiving
large shipments of parts. It appears, though, that the lack of a highly
skilled labor force played a role. Only one in six adults in the region has a
college degree. Besides, says John Russo, a Youngstown State University
business professor, "If I were a businessman, I'd look around and ask,
'Do I really want be in an area that's basically a penal colony?'"
Finding neighborhood boosters is nigh impossible. "It's a bleak, sick,
sad and pathetic reality," says talk radio host Louie Free.
"Prisons just fuel the cycle." Youngstown's new mayor, Jay
Williams, is hoping to break the cycle. The city has given $200,000 or so in
grants to a downtown auditorium and will spend $100,000 this year to improve
lighting and landscaping. Williams is also pledging up to $1 million in
taxpayer money to build space for young high-tech companies that graduate
from an existing, nonprofit incubator. Who knows? Maybe some genius there
will invent a robotic chain gang foreman.
May 2, 2005 Vindicator
A Willoughby Hills accountant, who pleaded guilty about a week ago to 29
federal criminal counts, committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor
in the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center private prison on Hubbard Road. An
NOCC corrections officer found Paul A. Rendina, 53,
in his cell breathing at 5:26 a.m. Sunday. Rendina
had cut himself with a razor on the left and right sides of his neck and on
both arms, a Youngstown police report said. The Federal Bureau of Prisons awarded a contract in December to
Corrections Corporation of America of Nashville, parent company of NOCC. The
contract calls for the federal government to house federal prisoners
classified as low security at the Hubbard Road facility.
November 5, 2004 Corrections Professional
Ruling: An inmate's claim that he should have been paid the same wages as
workers in the private sector was rejected by an appeals court. Summary:
Robert R. Ziegler said while he was an Oklahoma state prisoner managed by
Corrections Corporation of America, he performed work for a company called
Hy-Tec. He filed a lawsuit against CCA and two company employees stating that
his due process rights had been violated when Hy-Tec failed to pay him the
prevailing wage for his work. Ziegler's complaint also asserted that CCA
officials violated a state statute by using his net rather than gross wages
in determining how much money to deposit in his inmate savings account.
Finally, Ziegler said his due process right was violated, as well as his
Eighth Amendment right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment. The
District Court dismissed Ziegler's claims. On appeal, Ziegler challenged the
dismissal of his wage-related claims. In particular, he argued that he had a
constitutionally protected liberty interest in being paid the prevailing
wage. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed Ziegler's property and
liberty interest claims arising from prison conditions and determined that Ziegler's
complaints did not present an atypical deprivation. The appeals court
affirmed the decision of the lower court.
September 9, 2004 The Tennessean
Recent actions in two states could delay or kill Corrections Corporation of
America's efforts to win contracts to house new prison inmates there. In
Georgia, the state's procurement office because of ''budget'' reasons has
canceled a request for proposals on a contract to house 1,000 inmates, said
Pat Swindle, an analyst at investment banking firm Avondale Partners of
Nashville. CCA was one of the bidders on the contract and, if successful, had
planned to house the inmates at its Stewart County Correctional Facility in
Lumpkin, Ga. Swindle, in a stock research report issued yesterday, also cited
actions in Connecticut that could affect CCA's bid to win a contract to house
up to 2,500 inmates. M. Jodi Rell, that state's new
governor, just announced plans to bring home by year-end the 400 Connecticut
inmates housed in a Virginia prison. She also has expressed a lack of
interest in sending Connecticut inmates to privatized prisons outside the
state, Swindle said.
May 1, 2004 Corrections Caselaw Quarterly
Warren v. District of Columbia, 353 F.3d 36 (D.C.Cir.
2004). A prisoner brought a pro se [section] 1983 action against the District
of Columbia, alleging that he suffered constitutional violations while
incarcerated in a private prison operated under contract with the District.
The district court dismissed the claim and the prisoner appealed. The appeals
court reversed and remanded, finding that the prisoner's allegations that the
District had, or should have had, knowledge of alleged constitutional
violations were sufficient to state a claim against the District under
[section] 1983. The prisoner alleged that private prison officials used
common needles to draw blood from prisoners. (Corrections Corporation of
America, Youngstown, Ohio)
March 26, 2004
Mahoning County
commissioners were slapped with a lawsuit and unkind words Thursday from the
Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141. "They don't do their jobs,"
FOP president Glenn Kountz said of commissioners.
"They get paid $65,000 a year to do a part-time job and they don't even
do that." The FOP filed a lawsuit in common pleas court against
Commissioners Ed Reese, Vicki Allen Sherlock and David Ludt,
and against Sheriff Randall Wellington. It says that a plan to bring federal
inmates to Mahoning County and house them in a private prison on the city's
East Side violates terms of the FOP's contract. Local 141 represents deputy
sheriffs. Commissioners
and other county officials have worked for months to strike a deal with
federal authorities for housing the federal inmates at the Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center on Hubbard Road. The first busload of inmates was due to arrive
Thursday. About
70 federal inmates are regularly kept in the county jail while they await
appearances in federal court. The federal government reimburses the county
$67 per day for each inmate kept there. What's behind suit
Under the new plan, more federal inmates would be brought to the
county and kept at NOCC, for which the county also would be reimbursed by the
federal government. Those inmates would be guarded and monitored by NOCC
employees, not the sheriff's department. The county would then pay
Corrections Corporation of America the money it receives from the federal
government, minus a small administrative fee. CCA is the parent company that
operates the private prison. The FOP says the problem is that the
plan violates a clause in its contract that prohibits contracting out work
that is normally done by union employees. The lawsuit sought a restraining order
to keep the county from accepting inmates at NOCC until the dispute is
settled. However, about 150 inmates already were on the way here from
Maryland when the suit was filed. Visiting Judge Charles J. Bannon of
common pleas court said NOCC could accept those inmates but barred the prison
from taking any more until the dispute is resolved. A hearing on the matter
is scheduled Monday morning. Kountz said the FOP has tried
to negotiate an agreement whereby the sheriff would be able to house the
federal prisoners without violating the contract, but commissioners have yet
to ratify terms of the agreement. No details were given. The wrinkle is that
commissioners have not sent a representative to the bargaining table so they
can negotiate a final contract. The FOP negotiates with Wellington, but Kountz said commissioners should be there as well since
they are the appropriating authority. Response
Commissioner David Ludt said commissioners don't need to be included in
negotiations and haven't been presented with an agreement to consider.
"They need
to just get their proposal together and send it over to us," Ludt said. "We'll either approve it or reject
it." Ludt said he and Auditor
George Tablack have met with the union several
times to go over the issue of contracting out services. "I was totally
blindsided by this lawsuit," Ludt said.
"I can't believe they did this just when we are getting ready to bring
some prisoners in." (Vindicator)
February 3, 2004
At least 90 employees will be on hand next month to reopen the private prison
on the city's East Side. Roseanne Rubosky, a
spokeswoman for the North East Ohio Correctional Center on Hubbard Road, said
Monday that the prison plans to reopen March 10. She added that she has
no idea how many inmates are expected, but a staff of more than 90 employees
will be on hand to greet them. Of those employees, 68 percent are
former employees of the prison, which closed in 2001 when its owner,
Corrections Corporation of America, closed the facility because of financial
problems. ''We hired a large number of former employees,'' Rubosky said. Rubosky
said the employees have been undergoing training since the first of the year,
and a class is set to graduate Friday. The number of employees at the
prison will increase as it receives more inmates, Rubosky
said. The road to reopen the prison was paved in November when Mahoning
County commissioners ratified an agreement with CCA that limits the number of
federal inmates in the county jail according to space needs. Those inmates
would have to be sent to the private prison if there is no room at the county
jail. (Tribune-Chronicle)
January 5, 2004
A D.C. prisoner who sued the District claiming that officials ignored
life-threatening conditions in a now-closed prison will be allowed a new
chance to make his case, a federal appeals panel ruled yesterday. The
three-judge panel overturned a federal trial judge's decision to dismiss the
lawsuit of Morris J. Warren, a prisoner who said the city violated his rights
by allowing him to be mistreated and harmed when he was confined at an Ohio
prison run by a city contractor from August 1997 to September 1999.
Acting as his own attorney and writing in longhand, Warren filed his legal
claim in 2001 alleging that the for-profit prison denied him water, food and
prescribed medication. He also said prison staff members drew his blood with
used needles and left him naked on his cell floor for hours at a stretch,
leading him to contract pneumonia and jaundice and suffer a stroke.
Warren said that he and others alerted the District to problems at the
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center in Youngstown but that no action was taken.
In papers he submitted to the court, he said that he wrote letters to
District Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) and Corrections Department Director
Odie Washington and that news media and court monitors also warned of
mistreatment at the penitentiary run by Corrections Corp. of America.
U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. dismissed Warren's lawsuit in 2002,
saying the prisoner had failed to establish his claim or present facts that
the District knew about the alleged conditions at the Youngstown facility.
But the three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
wrote in yesterday's opinion that Kennedy was holding the prisoner to a
higher standard than the law allowed. The judges said the lower court must
give Warren the benefit of the doubt that he might be able to prove both that
he was mistreated and that the District was aware of it. "If
Warren can prove the violations, and prove as well that the District had
actual or constructive knowledge of them, he will have established the District's
liability," Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph wrote for the panel.
Peter J. Lavallee, spokesman for the D.C. Office of Corporation Counsel,
which had called for the suit's dismissal, said his office was reviewing the
opinion but could not comment on its substance. The Youngstown facility
had been plagued by problems from the time it opened in 1997 and started
accepting prisoners from the District's Lorton
complex. Two inmates were stabbed to death, 40 assaults were reported and six
prisoners escaped in 1998. Inmates also won $1.65 million in a class-action
lawsuit that accused guards of excessive force. The facility closed in
August 2001. Warren is now incarcerated at the federal penitentiary in
Lewisburg, Pa. Warren was represented in Nov. 13 appellate arguments by
Susan S. Friedman, a third-year student at the Georgetown University Law
Center, and supervising professor Steven H. Goldblatt. The panel, which
also included Judge John G. Roberts and Senior Judge Stephen F. Williams,
wrote that although it was reversing Kennedy, it was leaving many issues open
for the trial court to decide. They included, the judges
said, whether the allegations about the mistreatment and city
knowledge were true and whether Warren's claims might be covered by the
previous settlement. (The Washington Post)
November 22, 2003
Former workers at the private prison on the East Side should be the first to
be rehired when it reopens, several speakers told Mahoning commissioners on
Friday. Commissioners approved an agreement with the Corrections
Corporation of America to house federal inmates at the prison on Hubbard
Road, which has been closed since 2001. CCA will house federal inmates
when the U.S. Marshal's Service cannot send any more inmates to the Mahoning
County Jail, county Administrator Gary Kubic said. (Tribune Chronicles)
November 21, 2003
The private prison on the city's East Side may be on the verge of
reopening. Mahoning County commissioners will hold an emergency meeting
today to vote on an agreement with Corrections Corporation of America to
reopen the prison on Hubbard Road to house federal inmates who are presently
housed in the county jail. Commissioners were set to vote on the
agreement Thursday, but they tabled the issue because of last- minute negotiations.
''I am confident we will be able to come to a tentative agreement,'' county
Administrator Gary Kubic said. ''I think it will be beneficial to the county
and the city of Youngstown. I think it can be a long-term relationship, and
that's clearly what we've been working on.'' If an agreement is
reached, Kubic said CCA would hire 300 people to staff the prison. About 500
people lost their jobs when the prison closed in July 2001. Kubic said
CCA is negotiating the possible reopening with Mahoning County officials
because the county has an agreement with the federal government to house
those inmates. A provision exists that requires any previous agreement
between CCA and the city be honored. If there is an overflow of federal
inmates that cannot be housed at the county jail, they will be housed in the
private prison, Kubic said. Steve Owen, a spokesman for CCA, said the
agreement does not necessarily mean the prison will reopen immediately. He
said that will depend on when the U.S. Marshal's Service will need the space
to house their inmates. ''If the Marshal's service wants to use it,
we'll be in place,'' Owen said. (Tribune Chronicles)
October 16, 2003
U.S. Marshal Peter J. Elliott says there are "no guarantees," but
he's taking a look at housing federal detainees at the mothballed private
prison on the East Side. "Reopening the prison would be a huge tax
boost for the city of Youngstown and create a number of jobs," Elliott
said. "I know it would be great for the economy, and that's one of my considerations."
The U.S. marshal, based in Cleveland, said he'd like a federal detention
center there but is considering other options in an effort to make the best
decision for his marshal district. "I'll say this, I'm taking a very
good hard look at [Youngstown]. I will have a number of discussions and
meetings," Elliott said. "I hope to have a decision after the first
of the year." Federal detainees are now housed in county jails in
the vicinity of federal courthouses where they have matters pending.
Occasionally, judges will remand defendants to custody the day of sentencing
and they stay in county jails until the federal Bureau of Prisons designates
a prison. Former U.S. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr., for example, spent a
few days at the Summit County jail before being sent to a federal prison in
central Pennsylvania in August 2002. Operated four years Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center, the private prison on Hubbard Road, has a bed capacity
of 2,106. It opened in mid-1997 and operated until July 2001, after losing
its contract to incarcerate roughly 1,500 federal inmates, mostly from the
Washington, D.C., area. The prison had an annual payroll of $11 million
for a staff of more than 400 and paid the city $250,000 in income tax its
last year. Elliott said that he has roughly 300 federal inmates housed
in eight county jails. For each inmate, the government pays the jails a daily
rate of about $70. "It's the federal marshal's
call. We'll cooperate in any way we can," said Mahoning County Sheriff
Randall A. Wellington. "It would be good for the economy of the whole
area." Wellington said overpopulation with federal detainees is a
problem nationwide. This past week, the Mahoning County jail had 75 federal
inmates. NOCC could open with 300 inmates but would need more federal
detainees from other districts — not just Northeast Ohio — to show a profit
and sustain operations, said sheriff's Maj. Michael Budd. He said the idea
has been discussed with and received favorably by county and NOCC officials.
How it would work Budd said the concept of housing hundreds of federal
detainees locally for the U.S. Marshals Service would work like this:
The Mahoning County jail would take the first 100 inmates and serve as the
conduit for the overflow who would go to the private prison on
"piggyback contracts" that would include food service from a local
vendor. Mahoning County would get a processing fee from NOCC, say $1 per day
for each inmate. NOCC would collect the going rate, $70 per day, for
each federal detainee. Budd described the proposed arrangement as a
marriage between the public and private sectors. He said the county would
want a long-term contract to ensure that it remains the conduit for federal
detainees placed at NOCC. Steve Owen, spokesman for Community
Corrections Corp. of America, NOCC's parent company in Nashville, Tenn., said
the company has been actively marketing the Youngstown facility to state and
federal officials. He said that there's nothing to report at this time and
that he looks forward to the day he can report a contract has been
signed. (The Vindicator)
May 12, 2003
Nothing is imminent, but a settled lawsuit makes reopening the closed private
prison easier, the company says. There are governments interested in a
contract with Corrections Corporation of America to use the local prison,
said Steve Owen, a company spokesman. Five years ago, the school board
filed the lawsuit against CCA and the city over tax breaks granted to the
company. Millions of dollars were at stake. CCA has talked with
the federal government for more than a year about the prison, but there has
been no progress toward a sale, Owen said. Local officials have wondered
about acquiring and operating the prison, too. CCA hasn't even talked
with them, Owen said. (The Vindicator)
May 5, 2003
A new tax deal and "best efforts" at reopening the closed private
prison are the main features in a major legal settlement. City Law
Director John McNally IV said he is confident the prison's owner, Corrections
Corporation of America, eventually will reopen the prison with the lawsuit
resolved. City council approved the settlement at a special meeting
Thursday. The deal, after a year of talks, avoids a trial scheduled for
last summer but delayed while the deal developed. At issue was the
5-year-old suit the school board filed against CCA and the city over tax
breaks granted to the company. Millions of dollars were at stake.
The 12-yyear deal gives CCA a 100-percent abatement on property taxes.
Instead, CCA will make payments in lieu of taxes. Previously, the city
gave CCA a deal that said the company would pay only a small part of its
property taxes in the first five years. The bulk of that would go to
the city schools. In the second five years, CCA would continue paying
its school tax bill and a large lump sum directly to the city alone.
The school district would get none of that money. The deal also called
for the schools and city to share in income tax revenue. The school
district protested the deal, and the Ohio Tax Commission never approved
it. That left CCA to pay its full tax bill since opening the
prison. Payments continued despite the prison being emptied of
prisoners two years ago when a federal contract expired. CCA has paid
about $5 million in property tax to date. The deal also says CCA can
transfer the property to a new owner that will open the prison, with the
city's permission. The federal government and some local officials have
talked about buying and operating the prison. (The Vindicator)
May 4, 2003
A tax abatement war waged for nearly five years between the city and the
Youngstown Board of Education is coming to a close. Board president
Lock P. Beachum Sr. said a tentative agreement has
been reached between the school district, the city and Corrections
Corporation of America. The suit revolves around a full, three-year tax
abatement the city granted CCA in 1996 as an incentive to build the Northeast
Ohio Correctional Center prison off Hubbard Road. The exemption was
later extended to 10 years. School officials had estimated that the
break would cost them $9 million in lost property taxes. (The
Vindicator)
December 16, 2002
Trumbull
and Mahoning County officials agree that creating a regional
jail would be beneficial to the Valley, but no one is quite sure
how to make it happen. Officials from
both counties met Thursday during the Trumbull County Community Corrections
Board regular meeting and discussed the idea of transforming the empty private
prison in Youngstown into a multicounty jail. "It's a great idea, but what do we
need to do to get it?" asked Capt. Tim Bowers of the city police
department. The 2,106-bed
medium-security prison has been empty since July 2001 when the federal government
transferred the last of its 1,700 inmates from the private facility, built in
the 1990s by Nashville-based Corrections Corporation of America. (The
Vindicator)
July 18, 2002
A
long and ugly period in relations between city hall and the board of
education could soon reach an end. Four years ago, the school
board sued the city and Corrections Corporation of America over
tax breaks the city granted the private prison company. "The city and the
school board are starting to realize they have more common interests
and want to resolve issues," said Martin Hughes, a Columbus lawyer
retained by the school board to battle the city and CCA. From the board of
education's point of view, the tax breaks were a city hall money-grab
at the expense of schoolchildren. "It was a sweetheart deal that
leaves the city rolling in money; our money," said Carolyn
Funk, school district treasurer. The dispute dates to 1994, when a new
state law required that cities get the approval of school boards
before handing out tax breaks of more than 75 percent. But the city wanted to
continue giving out 100 percent tax incentives to attract new
businesses to town. A year later, the city and CCA agreed
to a 10-year tax break package as an incentive for CCA to build
a private prison in Youngstown. The city offered CCA something called a
"tax increment financing" deal, or TIF. The city says the TIF
called for two things: * CCA would pay only 25 percent of its
property taxes in the first five years, with the bulk going to the
city schools.
*
In the second five years, CCA would continue paying 25 percent of its school
tax bill but also would pay a lump sum equal to the remaining 75
percent of the taxes directly to the city alone. The school
district would get none of that money. Without the tax package,
the school board would get about $1.1 million a year in taxes
from CCA. With the package, the district would see about $300,000 a year.
City officials approved the
tax agreement in 1996, and CCA opened the prison in 1997. The Ohio Tax Commission,
however, has never approved the deal, so CCA has paid its full
$1.37 million tax bill since it opened. Those payments have continued, despite
the prison's being emptied of prisoners almost two years ago. Nevertheless, the school
board cried foul. "If this isn't a case of the city
trying to put the skewer up the you-know-what, I don't know what
is," Funk said. The school board sued in September
1998, claiming three major violations: * The school system was not
properly notified. * The tax break agreement was
retroactive. Hughes said state law requires that tax abatements
can be used only to create or retain jobs. The CCA prison already was
under construction when the city approved the tax break package, he said.
* The votes of
then-councilman Charles Ellis on the CCA tax deals were an unlawful
interest in a public contract, the lawsuit claims. The 2nd Ward councilman
later got a job at the private prison. "He voted to approve
the abatement for the sole permissible purpose of creating jobs
and then took one of those jobs," Hughes said. If the city loses, CCA
wants the city to pay anything the company may owe to the school
district. The
city could have to pay roughly $3 million that the school board is seeking
in damages and an additional $5 million or more in property taxes
already paid that CCA might get back. "That would bankrupt
the city of Youngstown," McKelvey said. If the school
district loses the dispute, CCA has asked that the school district refund
75 percent of the taxes it has paid over the past four years, Hughes said.
That would amount to about $4 million. (The Vindicator)
February 13, 2002
A
Florida official faces ethics charges in that state,
in part, on allegations that he improperly sold a public document
to the city of Youngstown for $7,500. City contracts and invoices
show the official also sold Youngstown a draft of
the document -- a private prison monitoring manual -- for another
$7,500. That
puts the questionable total at $15,000 paid to consultant C.
Mark Hodges. He also is executive director of Florida's
Correctional Privatization Commission. Hodges and city Law
Director Robert Bush Jr., however, disagree with
Florida ethics investigators. Hodges did more work for the
money spent than just provide the documents, he and Bush
said. The document, unedited, would have cost
$10.20 -- 15 cents a page in copying fees. Besides
the manual, the Florida Commission on Ethics
recently found probable cause that Hodges violated other laws
the past six years. A few of the ethics charges stem from
Hodges' work in Youngstown in 1998. Bush
said the city expected a unique manual for Youngstown. He didn't
know the manual mostly was copied from Florida's document,
he said. Hodges never indicated that the manual was based
on a public record, Bush said. (The Vindicator)
August 5, 2001
More than 500 workers lost their jobs last month when Corrections Corporation
of America mothballed the 2,016-bed Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, the
state's only privately owned and operated prison. Warden Brian Gardner
and a skeleton crew stayed on after the last of the 1,700 inmates housed
under contract with the Washington, D.C., Department of Corrections were
bused out of Youngstown, about 145 miles northeast of Columbus. Raymond
Wells, a guard since the prison opened in 1997, decided not to transfer to
one of the company's 64 other prisons. Between 25 and 30 co-workers
accepted. Now, at age 54, Wells is looking for work. "My
daughter is a junior in high school; my wife has a beauty shop business,'' he
said. "There's no way I could pull up roots now.'' Wells considers
himself lucky. Not only does his wife have an income but he has his police
pension from nearby Hubbard. But the company's business plan had no
contingency for what seemed unthinkable when the company opened the Mahoning
County prison: a day when it would run out of inmates. Critics contend
the prison and its backers have only themselves to blame for the problems at
the prison that likely played into the government's decision to cancel the
company's contract with the prison system. In less than four years, two
inmates were murdered, six escaped and the company agreed to pay $1.65
million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by the prisoners.
"They just didn't take steps necessary to safeguard the community,''
said Alan Kretzer, an attorney and critic of the
city's involvement with the company. "The problem was that
everyone was convinced the private prison was the greatest thing since sliced
bread,'' he said. Bob Fitzer, president of
the Greater Youngstown Citizens' League, a group dedicated to transforming
the city's reputation for political corruption, thinks the company preys on
distressed communities. "They don't approach Columbus, because
Columbus doesn't need this type of job,'' Fitzer
said. "Here, you accept scraps because it seems like scraps are all
you're going to get.'' Ralph Naples, meanwhile, shakes his head when
asked about the empty prison just up the road from the Golden Dawn.
"I don't understand it,'' he said while breaking a $100 bill for a
regular. "It's a brand-spanking new building.'' Then he paused to
add: "Isn't it a shame to be fighting for that kind of business?''
(The Columbus Dispatch)
July 9, 2001
Ohio's only privately owned, privately operated prison, originally scheduled
to close in August, will close several weeks earlier as the final inmates are
moved elsewhere. Within two weeks, the remaining 101 inmates at the 2,016-bed
Northeast Ohio Correctional Center will be moved out and prison operates will
be suspended. (AP)
May 11, 2001
The remaining 350 D.C. inmates at a private prison in Youngstown, Ohio, will
be moved to federal prisons across the country in coming months as the
troubled penitentiary prepares to close in August, officials said
yesterday. The prison, run by Corrections Corp. of America, has been
beset with problems since it opened in 1997, accepting D.C. inmates from the
Lorton Correctional Complex in Fairfax County. Two inmates were stabbed
to death; 40 assaults were reported; six prisoners escaped in a 1998
breakout; and inmates won $1.65 million in a class-action lawsuit that
accused guards of excessive force. Depending on their classification
and prison space, the D.C. inmates will be moved to any of the 98 federal
prisons across the country, Bureau of Prisons spokesperson Traci Billingsley
said. (The Washington Post)
May 11, 2001
Once famously plagued by violence and escapes, an Ohio prison owned by
America's largest operator of for-profit lockups now faces a new problem: it
may soon have no prisoners. Corrections Corporations of America's
2,016-bed facility in Youngstown, Ohio currently houses overflow inmates from
Washington, D.C. But the federal Bureau of Prisons is taking charge of
the capital's prison system and has announced plans to move all the
Youngstown inmates to other facilities by August. (Mother Jones)
April 25, 2001
Mayor George McKelvey refuses to believe that Corrections Corp. of America
will close its private prison Aug. 18, with the loss of 500 jobs and a
quarter-million dollars in annual income taxes. "I don't think
they will close," McKelvey said yesterday. "I'm sure they
will find new clients." "We can't allow this facility to
close," he added. "We just had Tartan Textile close a couple
months ago, meaning the loss of 300 to 500 jobs. Steel companies in the
area that employ Youngstown people have been closing all over. We'll do
anything and everything we can to keep the prison here." (The
Plain Dealer)
April 25, 2001
Gov. Bob Taft asked the federal government on Wednesday to buy a Youngtown
private prison that is slated to close in August. Corrections Corporation
of America, which runs the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, announced this
week that it was closing the Youngstown facility Aug. 18, affecting 500
jobs. The prison, which opened in May 1997, houses inmates from the
District of Columbia. (AP)
April 24, 2001
CCA officials have announced that the company's current contract with the
District of Columbia to house its inmates at Northeast Ohio expires September
8 and will not be renewed due to a new law that mandates the Federal Bureau
of Prisons to assume jurisdiction of all D.C. offenders by the end of this
year. The facility has been securely housing inmates for the District
of Columbia since its opening in 1997. (Nashville, Tenn. -- Business
Wire)
April 24, 2001
Corrections Corporation of America said Tuesday it will close its Youngstown,
Ohio, prison on Aug. 18 but wants to reopen it if the company wins a new
contract to house inmates. The shutdown will mean the loss of more than
500 jobs. Warden Brian Gardner said the company would consider housing
women inmates at the prison to reopen it. The Nashville-based prison
operator said the decision was made after the District of Columbia decided
not to renew its contract with CCA. The prison, which at one time
housed up to 1,500 inmates from Washington, has faced various problems over
past years--including the 1997 stabbing deaths of two inmates by other
prisoners, an inmate class-action lawsuit alleging excessive use of force by
guards and a 1998 jail break. Youngstown Mayor George McKelvey said the
closing would be devastating economically to the city. The prison has
an annual payroll of about $11 million and paid the city $250,000 in income
tax last year. "They are one of the largest employers in the
city," McKelvey had said. (AP)
April 23, 2001
Corrections Corporation of America said yesterday it will close its troubled
Youngstown, Ohio, prison effective Aug. 18 until it can secure a new contract
to house inmates at the facility. The decision was made after the
District of Columbia decided not to renew its contract with CCA, which has
been housing prisoners from the nation's capital in the Ohio facility.
The Nashville-based prison operator cited a new law that requires the Federal
Bureau of Prisons to take jurisdiction of all D.C. inmates by the end of the
year as the reason the contract won't be extended when it expires on Sept.
8. Problems at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, including the
1997 stabbing deaths of two inmates by other prisoners, an inmate
class-action lawsuit alleging excessive use of force by guards and a 1998
jail break, created a public relations nightmare for CCA specifically and the
private corrections industry generally. CCA now houses 350 D.C. inmates
at the 2,016-bed Ohio prison, company spokesperson Steve Owen said, down from
1,500 at one time. James Macdonald, an analyst at First Analysis in
Chicago, said a permanent closure of the Ohio prison is more likely. He
said currently there is a weak demand for new beds among states. The
Youngstown prisoners will moved to other private
non-CCA facilities. CCA recently notified about 330 employees at the
Youngstown prison that they would be laid off a later date. This week,
the remaining 184 workers will receive similar notices, the company
said. (AP)
April 23, 2001
A private prison that houses out-of-state prisoners could close as soon as
August if it doesn't get more inmates, city officials said Monday.
Corrections Corporation of America announced last month that it was cutting
200 jobs--or about 45 percent--at the Northeast Ohio Correctional Center,
citing a declining inmate population. The 2,106-bed prison had only 350
inmates left as of last week and at one time housed up to 1,500 inmates from
Washington, D.C. Nashville-based CCA told the city in a letter Friday
that the prison could close Aug. 18, said city law director Robert
Bush. "The city will do everything it can to save that
facility," Youngtown Mayor George McKelvey told The Vindicator on
Monday. Even if the prison has to close, the company will work on
getting another contract and reopen the facility, NOCC warden Brian Gardener
said. CCA also may try to bring in female prisoners. McKelvey
said the prison closing would be devastating economically to the city.
The prison has an annual payroll of about $11 million and paid the city
$250,000 in income tax last year. (Ohio News and AP)
March 29, 2001
CCA has notified about 200 employees at its Northeast Ohio Correctional
Center in Youngstown that they would be laid off. The 45% reduction in
the prison's 499-employee work force aims to adjust to reflect the number of
inmates there, CCA spokeswoman Louise Green said yesterday. The prison
now houses 574 inmates. At one time, it had housed up to 1,500
inmates. The families of 500 workers in Youngstown depend on the
private prison. They roughly 15-million dollars in wage tax into the city
treasury. But the prison's parent company, Correction Corp. of America, is
trying to reduce a 1.1 billion dollar debt ;pad.
Monday it sold one of its North Carolina Facility. Even old critics like
senator Bob Hagen are concerned about that, "I understand that we have
to be responsible about protecting the jobs there, and protecting the
facility. But they've lied to us so many times, we can't believe what they're
saying." What CCA's executives are saying is that it's getting very
costly to run their prison in Youngstown. (Tennessean)
March 28, 2001
Robert Bush Jr. knew the private prison would be cutting a significant number
of jobs. But planned layoffs of about 200 workers, nearly 45 percent of the
staff, startled even the city law director. The Nashville, Tenn.--based
company wants to reduce the work force because there are only 574 inmates in
the 2,106-bed prison. The prison housed up to 1,500 inmates from Washington,
D.C., at one time. A federally approved contract between CCA and the city
said the prison must be fully staffed regardless of the number of inmates. As
of December the prison had an $11 million annual payroll and paid the city
$250,000 a year in income tax. Reduced staffing will cut the city's income
tax collections by more than $112,000 a year. (OCSEA)
December 8, 2000
CCA lost $253.7 million in its third quarter, which ended Sept. 30. An annual
report released report released earlier this year said the company lost $62
million on revenues of $285 million in 1999. Mayor George McKelvey said the
company told him this week that it is losing millions of dollars a year in
Youngstown because the prison is housing less than 1,000 prisoners, well
below its capacity of 2,000. "It's a bombshell," McKelvey told the
newspaper. "We're in a crisis situation." (The Associated Press
State and Local Wire, Dec. 8, 2000)
Probably the most notorious for-profit private prison in the
US. CCA settled a $ 1.65 million class-action lawsuit brought on behalf
of inmates. CCA brought in District of Columbia inmates without the
knowledge of local authorities. They only found out after six escaped.
March 15, 1999
About 1,900 inmates in Ohio's only private prison would split $1.65 million
under a settlement of their lawsuit that claimed guards used excessive force
and that the facility improperly housed maximum-security prisoners. Three
inmates sued CCA in August 1997, claiming the 3-month-old Northeast Ohio
Correctional Center, which was built to handle unsafe and that medical
treatment was inadequate. After the lawsuit became a class action, two
inmates were killed by fellow prisoners. A Justice Department report said
staff members had used " unnecessarily harsh and humiliating procedures"
during inmate searches after the killings. Last summer the prison made
several security and personnel changes after six inmates escaped. Their
breakout prompted a series of legislative hearings and a proposal to ban
maximum-security inmates at private prisons in Ohio.
June 27, 1998
Six inmates, including four murderers, cut through a gate and escaped from
Ohio's only privately run prison Saturday afternoon. The prison, operated by
Correction Corp. of America, has been plagued with problems since it opened
in May 1997. Two inmates have been killed, and there have been at least 13
stabbings.
North Central Correctional Complex
Marion, Ohio
Mar 13, 2019 marionstar.com
Ex-prison guard to spend nine months
in prison for smuggling drugs into Marion prison
MARION — An ex-corrections officer was ordered to serve prison time
Tuesday after he admitted to trying to smuggle drugs into a Marion prison.
Joshua D. Borders, 24, of Galion, was sentenced Tuesday to nine months in
prison by Marion County Common Pleas Judge Warren Tom Edwards. The possible
prison terms the judge could have imposed ranged from nine months to three
years. Borders was working as a corrections officer at North Central
Correctional Complex, the privately-operated prison in Marion, when officers
searching him at the prison found packages of tobacco and marijuana bound to
his abdomen on Nov. 4, according to court records. Borders is one of multiple
ex-corrections officers charged within the last nine months with trying to
bring drugs into the private prison. Borders pleaded guilty last month to
illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto a detention facility, a
third-degree felony, in Marion County Common Pleas Court. He told the judge
Tuesday that he received $300 for agreeing to bring the drugs into the
prison. Prosecutors alleged he met with inmates' family members to coordinate
bringing the drugs into the prison in exchange for money, according to court
records. Borders told the judge Tuesday he did not know that he was bringing
marijuana onto prison grounds, but upon questioning by the judge,
acknowledged that he didn't want to know what was inside the packages. There
was about 159 grams of tobacco found in one of the packages and about 145
grams of tobacco and nearly 21 grams of marijuana found in the other package,
according to an affidavit signed by an Ohio Highway Patrol trooper and filed
in court. Borders, his wife and his attorney asked the judge for leniency
Tuesday, pointing to Borders' lack of a prior felony record, to his family
support and to the burden it would cause his family if he were imprisoned.
Borders has three children, one of whom is his wife's daughter whom he
adopted, and a fourth child is due to be born in September, they said.
Through tears, his wife told the court that she would struggle to provide for
their children if Borders was sent to prison and asked the judge to place him
on probation. An Ohio law that requires incarceration for prison workers who
bring contraband onto prison grounds does not apply to private Ohio prison
staff. Edwards said that Borders' crime was made more serious by the fact
that he was a corrections officer when he committed it. "You violated
the public trust here and there's a lot of controversy over private
prisons," he said. "I don't believe that the majority of prison
guards ... would ever engage in the conduct you engaged in." On top of
the prison time, Edwards also imposed a $600 fine. Borders was handcuffed at
the end of the hearing and was sent to the Multi-County Correctional Center until
he can be taken to prison. Other North Central Correctional Complex guards
have been accused of bringing drugs into the prison. In November, a
20-year-old was sent to jail for 30 days after trying to bring 322 grams of
marijuana into North Central, where he worked as a corrections officer. A
Richwood man, who turns 21 Wednesday, is facing charges he conspired to bring
Suboxone and tobacco into the private prison as a corrections officer. The
allegations against Fisher stem from a sting operation carried out by the
Ohio Highway Patrol, which was acting on an inmate tip, according to court
records.
Nov 21, 2018 marionstar.com
Prison guard jailed for smuggling pot into Marion prison
MARION — A former corrections officer who smuggled marijuana into a
Marion prison has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and a year on probation.
He will avoid prison in part because an Ohio law that requires prison time
for prison workers who bring contraband to inmates does not apply to private
Ohio prison staff. John W. Corbin, 20, was indicted on a mid-level felony
charge after he was caught in July smuggling 322 grams of marijuana into the
North Central Correctional Complex, where he worked as a corrections officer,
drugs that his defense attorney said her client mistook for tobacco,
according to court records. Kelle Saull, the
attorney representing Corbin, described her client in a court filing as a
"'wet behind the ears' youngster" who was "manipulated"
by the prison's inmates. Saull said her client's
employment at the privately operated prison in Marion was Corbin's first
"real job" out of high school and that it proved not to be a good
placement for him. The defense and the prosecution both recommended that
Corbin be placed on probation. Marion County Judge Jim Slagle was somewhat
reluctant to accept the joint recommendation, pointing to two prior cases of
North Central prison guards smuggling drugs into the prison in which the
judge imposed prison time. "Under statute, but for North Central
becoming a private prison, this would be a mandatory prison term without any
discretion by the court," he added. Ohio law requires that any employee
of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction convicted of Corbin's
crime serve a mandatory prison term. But Corbin was not a state employee, as
he worked for the private company that operates the prison: Management and
Training Corporation. The prison became privately operated in 2011.
"It's a lot more serious when we've got the staff who's there holding a
position required to enforce the rules ... conspiring with the inmates to
violate the rules. So that is about as serious as we can get on the illegal
conveyance," Slagle said. Corbin apologized for his actions and told the
court that he had learned a lot from the case. Corbin pleaded guilty last
month to a count of illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto a detention
facility, the third-degree felony that he was indicted on, in Marion County
Common Pleas Court. Authorities say that Corbin carried eight wads of
marijuana wrapped in electrical tape into the prison on July 9 after he was
offered $100 to bring contraband into the detention facility. In a court
filing, Saull said that Corbin had agreed to bring
tobacco into the prison. Corbin told law enforcement that he received the
wads after meeting someone outside of his apartment complex on James Way,
according to an affidavit signed by an Ohio Highway Patrol trooper and filed
in court. In her court filing, Saull says that
Corbin thought the wads contained tobacco and that Corbin had never smoked
marijuana and was not "immersed in the drug culture." But in their
affidavit, troopers alleged that Corbin knew the wads contained marijuana,
saying that Corbin admitted they smelled like marijuana and that he opened
one of them to see what was inside. In her argument for probation, Saull pointed to Corbin's lack of a prior felony record
and to his cooperation since his arrest. Corbin's criminal history includes
two misdemeanor convictions, one for contributing to the unruliness or
delinquency of a child and one for obstructing official business, according
to court records. Corbin told the judge he has been going to counseling every
two weeks to learn coping mechanisms and decision making skills and that he
is taking medication for his mental health. Ultimately, Slagle agreed to
sentence Corbin to one year of probation, though he tacked on 30 days of jail
time. Corbin is serving his jail time at the Multi-County Correctional Center
in Marion and is expected to be released on Dec. 8.
Oct 18, 2018 marionstar.com
Marion prison guard pleads guilty to bringing pot into
prison
MARION — A private prison guard in Marion pleaded guilty Monday to bringing
marijuana into the prison he worked at, according to Marion County Assistant
Prosecutor William Owen. John William Corbin, 20, pleaded guilty to a count
of illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto a detention facility, the
third-degree felony that he was indicted on, in Marion County Common Pleas
Court, Owen said. Corbin was indicted in July after he was caught smuggling
marijuana into the North Central Correctional Complex, the privately operated
prison in Marion where he worked as a correctional officer. Owen said that
prosecutors plan to recommend probation at Corbin's sentencing, which will
occur at a later date. Corbin does not have a prior felony record. His
criminal history includes two misdemeanor convictions, one for contributing
to the unruliness or delinquency of a child and one for obstructing official
business. Authorities say that Corbin was caught carrying eight golf-ball
sized balls wrapped in electrical tape into the facility on July 9. One of
the packages was opened by officers who found a clear plastic bag containing
marijuana, according to an affidavit filed in Marion Municipal Court. Corbin
told officers that he received the packages after meeting someone outside of
his apartment complex on James Way, the affidavit says. According to a
trooper with the Ohio Highway Patrol, the correctional officer said he was
offered $100 to bring the drugs into the prison and admitted to opening one
of the packages to see what was inside after he smelled marijuana. Corbin is
out on bond while awaiting sentencing, according to court records.
North Coast Correctional Facility
Grafton, Ohio
Management & Training Corporation (formerly run by CiviGenics,
First Correctional Medical)
July 12, 2012 Columbus Dispatch
Arguing that workers lost their jobs and had their lives uprooted, the
state’s largest employee union has gone to court over private prisons. The
Ohio Civil Services Employees Association filed suit Monday in Franklin
County Common Pleas Court. The suit represents 270 union members who were
“laid off or otherwise negatively affected” when the state turned over the
North Central Correctional Institution in Marion to a private operator and
sold the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in Conneaut in Ashtabula County. The
union listed 11 individual employees who it said lost jobs, were “uprooted
from their communities or were wrongfully excluded from employment” when the
prisons became private. The union wants the private-prison contracts
overturned and the employees to get their old jobs back. “While we believe
this privatization is unlawful, our bigger concern is the impact that
privatization has on our members’ lives,” said union President Christopher Mabe. “Not only is privatization unsafe and bad public
business, it’s devastating for the lives of these employees and their
communities. These public servants did nothing wrong and now are being punished
by bad public policies.” Last year, the state agreed to sell the Lake Erie
prison to the Corrections Corporation of America, of Nashville, Tenn., for
$72.7 million. The state pays the company to house prisoners there. At the
same time, the Marion prison was shifted to Management and Training Corp., of
Centerville, Utah, and the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in
Lorain County, previously operated by Management and Training Corp., was
taken over by the state. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said the Ohio Department
of Rehabilitation and Correction won’t comment because the litigation is
pending.
September 1, 2011 All Headline News
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced Thursday the
winning bidders in the $200 million privatization of prisons in Ashtabula and
Marion counties. Two out of three bidders won the contracts: Corrections
Corp. of America (CCA) of Nashville, TN, and Management and Training Corp.
(MTC) of Centerville, UT. The Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton, FL, was the
losing bidder. The state of Ohio pushed through with the announcement after a
Columbus judge denied a restraining order by opposition groups to halt the
process. Five adult prisons out of the state's 32 corrections facilities were
up for grabs. CCA will take over the operations of Lake Erie Correctional
Institution in Ashtabula County, while MTC will manage Marion County's North
Central Correctional Institution and the vacant Marion Juvenile Correctional
Facility. The MTC-operated North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in
Lorain County will be turned over to Ohio and merged with the state-operated
Grafton Correctional Institution.
September 10, 2009 Chronicle-Telegram
EMH Regional Medical Center is locked in a dispute with the private
contractor that runs the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in
Grafton over unpaid medical bills for inmates treated at the hospital. A
lawsuit filed earlier this year accuses Utah-based Management and Training
Corp. of failing to pay $628,193.81 in medical bills it racked up for inmates
between September 2006 and February 2009. But Tim Reid, the company’s
attorney, said Management and Training doesn’t actually owe the hospital the
money. Instead, he said, a former subcontractor is responsible for the
outstanding bills. Management and Training has been paying its bills since
severing ties with Arizona-based First Correctional Medical in May 2008, Reid
said. That company, he said, ran into financial problems and fell behind in
paying the medical bills under a contract with the hospital. But Management
and Training didn’t realize how much money was owed until after the lawsuit
was filed in May of this year, Reid said. “We realized there was a problem,
but we didn’t know the extent of the problem,” he said. First Correctional
and the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction are not named as a
party in the lawsuit, according to court records. Julie Walburn,
an ODRC spokeswoman, said the prison system paid Management and Training
about $15.4 million in fiscal year 2009 to operate the North Coast prison,
which mostly houses prisoners convicted of drunken driving and other
substance abuse crimes. “They’re responsible for providing medical care to
inmates,” she said.
September 11, 2003
Dr. Shura Hegde didn't have to look far for work after he lost his
$96-an-hour job at the Lorain Correctional Institution for "questionable
clinical, behavioral and billing practices." The psychiatrist
simply, and literally, crossed the road and landed a job at the North Coast
Correctional Treatment Facility in Grafton, a state prison operated by a
private contractor. State prison authorities were unaware Hegde was
hired at North Coast, a 552-bed minimum-security prison for drug and alcohol
offenders, after officials at Lorain refused to renew his contract. He
is one of at least four medical professionals ousted from one prison for
substandard performance only to later gain a job at another. An
investigation by The Dispatch and WBNS-10TV of problematic prison health care
for inmates led Gov. Bob Taft to seek a comprehensive study of prison
medicine, including improved screening of medical professionals. Amid
numerous complaints in 2001, a deputy warden at Lorain found Hegde performed
"full mental-health evaluations" in 10 minutes and gave the same
assessment scores to 30 of 31 inmates, "some of whom were
psychotic." Hegde also was accused of inappropriate behavior --
including playing pingpong on duty -- and of
billing the state for half-hour lunches during his four years of work at the
prison. The lunches resulting in an overpayment of $36,864. He began
working at North Coast, then operated by CiviGenics
Corp. of Marlborough, Mass., on July 1, 2001, the day after his
personal-services contract expired at Lorain. The prisons are in a cluster
with Grafton Correctional Institution about 100 miles north of
Columbus. Officials with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction's Bureau of Mental Health Services were unaware that Hegde, a
resident of of Avon Lake, was working at North
Coast, said department spokeswoman Andrea Dean. Jacqueline Thomas,
warden of North Coast, told state officials that Hegde "has not been a
problem there at all and is conducting himself appropriately," Dean
said. "The warden has been apprised of our concern about (Hegde's)
performance at Lorain and will monitor him," she said. The state has the
right to review and veto the personnel decisions of prison contractors.
The North Coast prison is operated by Management Training Corp. of Ogden, Utah,
under a $13.3 million annual contract. Thomas did not return repeated
telephone calls, and Hegde could not be reached for comment. Ralph Tate,
health service administrator at North Coast, declined to comment. In a
May 16, 2001, letter to Lorain prison officials, Hegde denied their
allegations. The 45-year-old native of India said his contract was not
renewed because of "prejudice and malice." (Columbus
Dispatch)
July 31, 2002
Public
employees and state-managed prisons are being forced to rescue a problem-plagued
private prison, according to the state's prison employee union.
Leaders from the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association said that today's
transfer of 12 inmates involved in a disturbance at the privately-operated
North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility to the Marion Correctional
Institution was an unnecessary burden on the state prison system
and a waste of public funds. MCI is managed and staffed by state workers.
"Why can't the private
prisons take care of their own problems," said Darrell
Starcher, president of OCSEA¹s chapter at MCI. "If the private prisons
really thought they were our equal, they wouldn¹t need us to take care
of their trouble makers." According to union sources, the
transfers were linked to an incident yesterday (July 29) at NCCTF
in which at least a dozen inmates refused to put on prison
clothing. NCCTF
is managed by the Management and Training Corporation, "So-called prison professionals
should be ashamed that they couldn't handle a problem of this
magnitude," said Starcher. "This would be laughable if it weren't
for the fact that MCI and the other state prisons are already under stress
from closures and staff reductions. We shouldn¹t be cleaning up problems
that for-profit companies created." (Ohio Civil Service Employees Association
News Release)
July
30, 2002
Thirty-six inmates have been moved in the past week from their prisons to
other institutions because of disciplinary problems. Twelve inmates
were moved Tuesday from the privately run North Coast Correctional Treatment
Facility in Grafton to the Marion Correctional Institution for refusing to
wear proper uniforms, department spokeswoman Andrea Dean said.
On Saturday, 24 inmates at the Southeastern Correctional Institution in
Lancaster who would not return to their living areas were moved to other
prisons, Dean said. The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, which
represents some prison workers, including guards, said removal of 12 inmates
from the privately run prison, which has nonunion guards, demonstrates that
the state puts its problem inmates in union prisons. "We shouldn't
be cleaning up problems that for-profit companies created," said Darrell
Starcher, the president of the union's local at the Marion prison. Dean
said that none of the disciplined Lancaster inmates were moved to private
prisons. "We're not targeting inmates in a private facility,"
Dean said. (The Associated Press State and Local News Wire)
July 7, 2002
The company that operates the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility and
the state' only other privately run prison has agreed to take a $400,000 cut
in its contracts with state. The future of the privately operated
prison here appears more secure after the state negotiated its contract to
lower costs by $400,000. Management and Training Corp. of Utah, the
company that runs North Coast Correctional Treatment Center in Grafton and
another prison in Conneaut, agreed to the cut in contracts. But if the
economy tumbles and further cuts are ordered, the local privately run prison,
as well as the one in Conneaut, could be targeted for closure, he said.
(The Chronicle-Telegram)
July 5, 2002
Housing units at four prisons will be closed and 56 jobs eliminated as part
of the state prison system's response to a new round of budget cuts.
The state also will renegotiate contracts with the company running Ohio's two
private prisons to seek reduced payments. Wilkinson said Ogden,
Utah-based Management and Training Corp. has agreed to reopen its contracts
for the two private prisons it runs. The company has a $21 million
contract this year to run the 1,300-bed Lake Erie Correctional Institution in
Conneaut and a $13.3 million contract to run the 550-bed
North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in Grafton. The
state wants to save $400,000 by renegotiating its contracts, department
spokeswoman Andrea Dean said. (The Associated Press State and Local
Wire)
May 24, 2002
The
private prison in Grafton likely will be the second correctional
facility this year to close as a result of budget cuts. Although department
officials won't discuss their plans, some lawmakers said they
expect to see the North Coast Correctional Institution on the chopping block.
NCCI opened in February
2000 as the state's first private prison. Lawmakers attempted to
save money by letting private companies, rather than the government,
operate the facilities. But private prisons generally have not met
expectations.
"If
they close one, I hope that's it," said Sen. Jim Carnes, R-St. Clairsville,
chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. "I'm not convinced that
private prisons have been a great service to the people." Management and Training
Corp., based in Centerville, Utah, took over change management
companies. It also runs Ohio's other private prison, in Conneaut.
(The News Journal)
January 13, 2001
Roy Ross, CEO of the Marlborough, Mass., company, said in a statement that
tenacious opposition by the Ohio Civil service Employees Association
contributed to the state's decision to pull the plug on Civigenics'
$14.9 million contract to run the North Coast Correctional Treatment facility
in Grafton. Ross said his company had a difficult time fighting qualified
staff members, in part because the union successfully challenged Civigenics' efforts to have its private employees trained
by state workers. On Wednesday, Reginald A. Wilkinson, director of the Ohio
Department Rehabilitation and Correction, informed Civigenics
that its contract to operate the 552-bed facility would not be renewed when
it expires June 30. State officials cited mounting problems at the Grafton
prison, including staff shortages, in dropping operator. (Today's Days
Dispatch)
December 1, 2000
The state is withholding part of its monthly payment to a private company
running a state prison because of concerns about the company's staffing
levels. The state said that CiviGenics didn't meet
minimum staffing levels for its alcohol and drug treatment programs between
April and November as called for in the state's 21 month contract. In effect,
the state said in a memo to warden Robert Clark last month, CiviGenics billed the state "for staff that were not
employed." (Ohio News 7-Day Archive, Dec. 1, 2000)
December 1, 2000
The operator of a privately run prison billed the state almost $75,000 for
employees who did not exist, according to state prison officials. CiviGenics billed the state for 956 days that counselors
did not work, 147 days that supervisors did not work and 27 days the director
did not work. Joe Andrews, a spokesman for the Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction said the state could sanction CiviGenics
if the company continued to under staff programs. (The Pain Dealer, Dec.1,
2000)
November 27, 2000
Residents and lawmakers are upset that a privately run state prison built to
house and treat inmates convicted on drug and alcohol charges is now housing
violent offenders. According to prison records, most of the 562 inmates
are serving time for drug or alcohol offenses, often in combination with
another felony such as burglary or aggravated vehicular assault. But 49
inmates convicted of crimes described as violent under state law were serving
time at North Coast as of September. (The Plain Dealer, Nov. 27, 2000)
October 2000
The CiviGenics state prison meant to house drunk
driving offenders is holding a large number of
violent inmates according to the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association.
More than sixteen percent of the inmates have been convicted of sexual
battery, assault, arson, manslaughter, robbery, etc. (Cincinnati Enquirer via
Corrections Professional, Oct.6, 2000)
May 4, 2000
A riot between guards and inmates at the brand new facility resulted in five
inmates being transferred out. (The Chronicle-Telegram, June 30, 2000)
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Corrections
Feb 22, 2018, recordherald.com
Democratic candidate for Ohio Treasurer urges study on private prisons
Cincinnati attorney Rob Richardson is in the running for Ohio Treasurer
and is asking the current Ohio Treasurer to study the fiscal and economic
impact of Ohio’s prison system. Richardson, a Democrat, wrote a letter to
current Ohio Treasurer Josh Mandel this week because he said he is concerned
about the for-profit, private prisons in Ohio and called the issue “one of
the most devastating trends over the last decade in Ohio.” “With the rise of
for-profit, private prisons, Ohio now has one of the highest levels of mass
incarceration in the country, tearing families apart and costing taxpayers $1
billion every year,” wrote Richardson. “Taxpayers have a right to know how
much of their tax dollars are being used to line the pockets of private
prisons. This money could be used to more adequately invest in education
equality, affordable healthcare, and better paying jobs. By re-focusing our
state’s resources into lifting people up, rather than locking them up, we can
keep more families together and grow our state’s economy.” Richardson is a
former chairman of the University of Cincinnati Board of Trustees. He
graduated from the university with an electrical engineering degree and a JD.
A press release from Richardson’s campaign states Richardson established the
UC Scholars Academy for students in Cincinnati Public Schools, where he
raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for student scholarships. Richardson
also founded the 1819 Innovation Hub, where university students have the
chance to interact with the private sector, helping to design, test, and
improve products and processes for private companies. There are three other
Ohio Treasurer candidates running in the 2018 election: Sandra O’Brien (R),
Robert Sprague (R), and Neil Patel (D). According to campaign information,
O’Brien is a former Ashtabula County Auditor and former teacher. Sprague is a
state representative, business consultant, and former treasurer for the City
of Findlay. Patel is an insurance salesman who has spent the past 14 years
working for New York Life.
Jul
31, 2014 seattlepi.com
COLUMBUS,
Ohio (AP) — The state on Wednesday announced a second fine against the private
vendor that took over the job of feeding inmates last year as the company
defended its operations before a prisons oversight committee. The $130,200
fine against Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services covered
continued staffing shortages, unacceptable food substitutions and shortages
and sanitation issues, including maggots observed in food service operations
at five prisons this month and last, according to Ohio's July 23 letter to
the company. "There were and there are remaining concerns," Gary
Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, told
members of the Correctional Institution Inspection Committee. Mohr emphasized
that problems are largely limited to seven prisons. He said some of the fine
will be used to increase the training Aramark employees receive. "What
was going on was just not adequate," he said. Mohr said Aramark has
saved Ohio $13 million since September and likely prevented the state from
having to close Hocking Correctional Facility in southeastern Ohio. The
Aramark contract is on track to save Ohio more than $16 million next year,
Mohr said. The state levied a $142,000 fine against Aramark in April. John
Hanner, president of Aramark Correctional Services, defended his company's
record in Ohio to the committee, saying food delays and substitutions have
happened less than 1 percent of the time. Afterward, he said the company is
committed to improving its Ohio operations. "Ninety-nine percent of the
time our people are doing a great job," Hanner said. "These are
Ohio citizens that we've hired. These people come to work every day and do a
great job under trying circumstances." The quality of food has gone down
since Aramark began work last September and food service concerns are more
significant than in the past ten years, Joanna Saul, chief of the oversight
committee, said in earlier testimony Wednesday. Aramark's low wages lead to
high turnover and a temptation to smuggle in contraband, Saul said.
"You're making $10 to $11, you can bring in a pack of cigarettes and
sell it for $300 — what are you going to choose?" Saul said. Numerous
reports have documented cases of Aramark running out of main and side dishes
over the past several months. Reports also indicate several days when Aramark
employees simply failed to show up, cases of unauthorized relationships
between inmates and Aramark workers, and the reports of maggots. Ninety-six
Aramark employees are banned from working in Ohio prisons, according to the
state. Aramark's $110 million deal to feed some 50,000 Ohio prisoners began
in September and runs through June 30, 2015. The prison employees union has
filed a formal grievance over the Aramark contract. It said it offered a
competitive proposal to keep food service in-house. In Michigan, Gov. Rick
Snyder's administration is approaching a decision on possibly reconsidering
Aramark's 3-year, $145 million contract. Earlier this year, Michigan
officials reported two incidents of maggots found in a prison's food service
area in Jackson. At issue is a bigger national debate over privatizing prison
services — from food preparation to the running of entire facilities — to
save money at a time of squeezed state budgets. The seven prisons with the
most problems, according to the state: Warren, Belmont, Noble, Mansfield,
Pickaway, Lebanon and the Ohio Reformatory for Women.
February 08, 2013 morningjournal.com
PERKINS TOWNSHIP — A cook at the Erie County Jail has
been arrested after admitting to bringing tobacco, liquor and a pair of
scissors to inmates who worked with her in the kitchen. Mildred Hensley, 59,
of Sandusky, has been charged with two counts of illegal conveyance of
prohibited items or deadly weapons onto the grounds of a detention facility
or institution. One count is a misdemeanor charge for bringing the alcohol
while the other is a felony as the scissors could have been used as a weapon,
said Erie County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Jared Oliver. Tobacco is not listed
as a prohibited item. Hensley was busted after an anonymous tipster told
deputies Tuesday that Hensley gave inmates a two-liter Sprite bottle full of
Tanqueray gin on Super Bowl Sunday. When Hensley came to work Wednesday, she
was stopped by the jail administrator and admitted that she had been bringing
tobacco for the inmates for at least four months. The investigation found
that she’d brought alcohol on Sunday and that a pair of scissors she had with
her were meant for an inmate so he could cut his hair, according to Oliver.
It does not appear that Hensley gained anything from the deliveries, he said.
“She said she did it because she wanted to,” he said. “She said there is
really no other reason than that.” Hensley has worked in the jail’s kitchen
for more than 20 years as an employee of food services company ARAMARK. In
the kitchen, she worked with inmates convicted of misdemeanor crimes. The
inmates cut time off their sentence through the work, Oliver said. Three of
the inmates involved with the Super Bowl incident have been removed from
kitchen and their accumulated time has been revoked, Oliver said. Detectives
are interviewing inmates and trying to determine how long Hensley has been
doling out goods. Some of the inmates she has helped might not even be in the
facility anymore, he said. Hensley was bringing items inside her purse,
Oliver said. The matter has raised concern over the potentially lax security
imposed on employees. “That is one of the issues we are reviewing concerning
the jail staff and the security that takes place when they either come to
work or depart from work,” he said. “This is an isolated incident, but we are
looking at our security procedures when it comes to staff in our kitchen.”
July 12, 2012 Columbus Dispatch
Arguing that workers lost their jobs and had their lives uprooted, the
state’s largest employee union has gone to court over private prisons. The
Ohio Civil Services Employees Association filed suit Monday in Franklin
County Common Pleas Court. The suit represents 270 union members who were
“laid off or otherwise negatively affected” when the state turned over the
North Central Correctional Institution in Marion to a private operator and
sold the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in Conneaut in Ashtabula County. The
union listed 11 individual employees who it said lost jobs, were “uprooted
from their communities or were wrongfully excluded from employment” when the
prisons became private. The union wants the private-prison contracts
overturned and the employees to get their old jobs back. “While we believe
this privatization is unlawful, our bigger concern is the impact that
privatization has on our members’ lives,” said union President Christopher Mabe. “Not only is privatization unsafe and bad public
business, it’s devastating for the lives of these employees and their
communities. These public servants did nothing wrong and now are being
punished by bad public policies.” Last year, the state agreed to sell the
Lake Erie prison to the Corrections Corporation of America, of Nashville,
Tenn., for $72.7 million. The state pays the company to house prisoners
there. At the same time, the Marion prison was shifted to Management and
Training Corp., of Centerville, Utah, and the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility in Lorain County, previously operated by Management and
Training Corp., was taken over by the state. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction won’t comment because
the litigation is pending.
September 1, 2011 All Headline News
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections announced Thursday the
winning bidders in the $200 million privatization of prisons in Ashtabula and
Marion counties. Two out of three bidders won the contracts: Corrections
Corp. of America (CCA) of Nashville, TN, and Management and Training Corp.
(MTC) of Centerville, UT. The Geo Group Inc. of Boca Raton, FL, was the
losing bidder. The state of Ohio pushed through with the announcement after a
Columbus judge denied a restraining order by opposition groups to halt the
process. Five adult prisons out of the state's 32 corrections facilities were
up for grabs. CCA will take over the operations of Lake Erie Correctional
Institution in Ashtabula County, while MTC will manage Marion County's North
Central Correctional Institution and the vacant Marion Juvenile Correctional
Facility. The MTC-operated North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in
Lorain County will be turned over to Ohio and merged with the state-operated
Grafton Correctional Institution.
April 24, 2011 Toledo Blade
Gov. John Kasich promotes privatization as a way for state government to save
money and deliver public services more efficiently. But a credible new study
suggests the Kasich administration has yet to make a compelling case for
selling five state prisons to private contractors. The liberal advocacy group
Policy Matters Ohio examined purported savings over the past decade from
private operation of two state prisons. It concludes that the state’s methods
for calculating seemingly robust savings from the experiment were “riddled
with errors, oversights, and omissions of significant data” and were
“potentially tainted by controversial accounting assumptions.” Once those
errors were corrected, the study says, the actual savings were far less. The
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction concedes that previous
computations of cost savings were inconsistent and imprecise. A department
spokesman says the Kasich administration is using a more accurate method
based on actual operating costs of established prisons. The state posted bids
for the purchase and sale of the five prisons before the new accounting
method came on line. The administration insists updated calculations still
show Ohio’s two current private prisons are meeting their legal mandate to
produce savings of at least 5 percent over what it would cost the state to
run them. Even so, the new study raises doubts about the cost-saving claims
associated with prison privatization. Before the state sells more prisons to
private entrepreneurs, the administration must show a compelling fiscal
rationale and, just as important, resolve concerns about private prisons’
effectiveness and safety.
April 18, 2011 Dayton Daily News
Ten years after Ohio first turned to private contractors to run two state
prisons, the state has yet to devise an accurate, reliable way to calculate
how much money, if any, has been actually saved, according to a new study
released Monday. Policy Matters Ohio, a left-leaning think tank based in Cleveland,
issued the 22-page report just as the Kasich administration moves to sell off
five state prisons and hire the new owners to operate them. Previous
calculations have been “riddled with errors, oversights and omissions of
significant data” and “potentially tainted by controversial accounting
assumptions,” the report said. State law requires that a private vendor’s
price beat state costs by at least 5 percent — a figure that Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction says has been consistently met over the last 10
years. Ohio prison officials say that the private vendor has saved taxpayers
more than $45 million over what it would have cost had the state run Lake
Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut and North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility in Grafton. State officials project that selling those two
prisons as well as two others and a shuttered juvenile facility would bring
in $200 million in cash and produce annual operational savings of $6.6
million. Policy Matters, however, questions whether privatizing the two
prisons actually produced savings. In calculating the private vendor’s daily
costs, DRC left out expenses picked up by the state such as inmate pay and
some hospitalization costs, the report says. And when calculating how much it
would cost DRC to run Lake Erie and North Coast, DRC used bloated staffing
and indirect cost figures, according to the report. “At the very least, that
should give taxpayers pause. It may eventually turn out that private prisons
do save money. But after 10 years of claiming it, Ohio has fallen well short
of proving it,” the report says. DRC spokesman Carlo LoParo
said some changes are being made to the formulas used but he criticized the
report overall as “incomplete and aimed at accomplishing their ideological objectives.
Based on the data available to Policy Matters, the researcher could only have
arrived at these figures by making broad assumptions that benefit his
client’s point of view. The report is based on a kernel of truth, but the
facts are bended to mislead.”
March 18, 2011 Chronicle-Telegram
State Rep. Matt Lundy is questioning whether it is a conflict of interest
for state prisons director Gary C. Mohr to be involved in the matter of
selling five Ohio prisons to private companies because Mohr used to work for
Corrections Corporation of America, one of the private prison operators who
could bid on purchasing Grafton Correction Institution and North Coast
Correctional Institution in Grafton. Lundy, D-Elyria, sent a letter to the
Ohio Ethics Commission on Thursday asking the group to make recommendations
on what level of involvement is proper for Mohr. “It is important that this
perception of a conflict of interest be addressed by putting ground rules in
place,” Lundy wrote. “This perception of a conflict of interest must be taken
seriously and addressed immediately.” Carlo LoParo,
communications chief for the prison system, accused Lundy of “playing
politics.”
March 14, 2011 Chronicle-Telegram
The Grafton Correctional Institution and the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility will be sold as a package to a private prison operator,
state Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, said this morning. Lundy learned of the
decision when he got a phone call at 9 a.m. from Gary C. Mohr, director of
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Lundy said. Grafton
Correctional is one of two state-operated prisons in Grafton. North Coast is
privately operated. The staff at the two prisons totals roughly 540 workers,
according to their websites. Together they hold more than 2,200 inmates. The
state will choose a private operator by the end of July, Lundy said, and it
will begin running the prisons at the start of 2012. The operator will
conduct interviews for prospective employees between Sept. 1 and the end of
the year. Private operators typically pay $13.25 per hour, less than state
pay of $15 per hour, he said.
January 24, 2011 AP
Gov. Paul LePage announced Monday that a Maine transportation official with a
reputation for getting the most mileage out of scarce dollars is his choice
to head that department, and a career administrator who has run public and
private prisons in several other states will be his nominee to head Maine's
corrections system. David Bernhardt, of Vassalboro, an engineer with 26 years experience in the department that oversees and
maintains Maine's highway, bridge, ferry and other public transportation
systems, will be his nominee for commissioner. LePage said he wanted to hire
a commissioner "who can take a nickel and stretch it into a dollar. The
name that kept coming up is David Bernhardt." Bernhardt has consolidated
transportation maintenance facilities and formed a partnership with New
Hampshire to save on purchases such as road culverts, resulting in $10
million in annual savings for Maine, LePage said. The emphasis on savings
comes as the transportation budget falls hundreds of millions of dollars
short of what's needed to keep up with proposed capital improvements for
highways and bridges. Asked whether an increase in Maine's 29.5 cent-per-gallon
gas tax plays into a solution to raising more revenue for the department,
LePage said, "It doesn't." That policy was seconded by Bernhardt,
who said his "first job is to look for efficiencies and cost-effective
solutions without having to raise the gas tax." LePage's nominee for
Corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte, has held administrative positions in
corrections systems in Idaho, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and
Tennessee. Ponte's resume shows he's also worked for private firms that run
prisons, including Corrections Corporation of America, his employer since
2006. Ponte said he's helped to turn around troubled prisons, including a
maximum-security state prison in Walpole, Mass., which he said had been one
of the most violent on the East Coast, and a county jail in Memphis, Tenn.,
that experienced staff problems. He is currently running a detention center
in Nevada for CCA. LePage said Ponte's association with CCA should
"absolutely" not be taken as a gesture favoring privatization of
Maine's prison system. However, LePage said he would be open to allowing a
private-sector prison come to Maine, build a prison, pay taxes and house
other state's prisoners. "I may consider that," he said.
January 4, 2011 Columbus Dispatch
Gov.-elect John Kasich, who has said he wants to explore privatizing state
prison operations, has chosen a former longtime state prisons official who
later worked at a company that operates private prisons to run the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Kasich introduced Gary C. Mohr
during a press conference this afternoon at the Ross County Courthouse in
Chillicothe, Mohr's hometown. He is the 11th cabinet nomination so far before
Kasich takes office on Monday. Kasich and Mohr pledged that all state
decisions involving privatization would publicly bid and transparent and that
Mohr would abstain from any decision involving his former employer,
Corrections Corporation of America, a private operator. Mohr, 57, worked for
three decades in the state prison system, serving as deputy agency director
under former Republican Govs. George V. Voinovich and Bob Taft. Mohr also
held a variety of other positions, including as a warden in Chillicothe and
two other facilities and both deputy director and superintendent of the
Department of Youth Services. From 2007-09, Mohr was a managing director for
Nashville-based CCA which owns and operates a private prison in Youngstown
that houses federal inmates. The company runs 60 prison facilities housing
75,000 inmates in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Mohr currently is
chief executive of the consulting company, Mohr Correctional Insight, which
has mostly worked with CCA, including instituting a new management system for
prison staffing. He has been in that position since 2009 after earlier
serving from 2005-07.
January 22, 2003
A
variety of factors will determine which of Ohio's prisons will close to help
trim a state budget shortfall, officials said Tuesday. Andrea Dean, Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction spokeswoman, confirmed the Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in Conneaut is "on the table" and not
exempt from consideration. The privately managed prison is one of 33 prisons
under review. Several factors will
determine which prison - or prisons - are closed, Dean said. Location, age,
security issues and maintenance costs are among the variables, she said. If
so, that bodes well for LaECI, which opened its
doors in April 2000, said State Rep. George Distel,
D-Conneaut. In the meantime, Distel said he was preparing a report for prison leaders,
detailing the financial investment made by the City of Conneaut regarding the
prison. His report will touch on money spent years ago to buy land and to
extend water and sewer lines for the prison project. As a result of the financial
incentives, the city has incurred some debt on behalf of the prison, Distel said. (Star Beacon)
November 10, 2001
A much-criticized contract to feed convicts in a southeastern Ohio prison is
merely one example of a much-larger problem with the state's efforts to
privatize government operations, a union spokesman said yesterday.
Peter Wray of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association made his comments
shortly after Auditor Jim Petro released a report that severely lambasted the
1998 contract. "This is just the tip of the iceberg,'' Wray said.
"This is a textbook case of why privatization doesn't work. The hidden
costs of privatization happen in case after case.'' Petro's audit
involved a contract between the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Correction and Aramark Correctional Services to provide meals for prisoners
at Noble Correctional Institution in Caldwell. Previously, full-time
state employees bought the food for Noble's 1,730 inmates and oversaw its
preparation and distribution. But in November 1998, the state awarded a
two-year contract to Aramark, a private company based in Oakbrook, Ill., to
take over the operation for $3.52 million. Prisoners soon complained
about the quality and quantity of the food and the contract was verbally
amended during a closed-door meeting between the company and state
officials. The amended contract allowed the company to charge taxpayers
$2.1 million -- 60 percent -- more, the audit found. After months of
negative publicity, the correction department last year chose not to renew
the contract with Aramark. Instead, the department awarded a two-year
contract to Local 11 of the civil service employees union, which allows state
employees to again take over food-service operations at Noble. At a news
conference yesterday, Petro said amending the Aramark contract did not
violate the law. However, the change "allowed for the waste of public
dollars,'' he added. Ideally, contracts should be written so they don't
have to be amended, Petro said. And if an amendment is necessary, it
should be done in writing, not verbally and in private, he said.
Privatizing some government operations can save taxpayers money, Petro
added. However, such privatizing must be closely monitored by state
officials to prevent hidden expenses and cost overruns, he said. Wray
contended that the Aramark contract is relatively small, compared with other
privatization efforts by the corrections department and other agencies.
Entire operations -- not just food services -- are privatized at Lake Erie
Correctional Institution in Conneaut and the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility in Grafton, Wray noted. Those two prisons, which
hold 1,360 and 530 inmates, respectively, opened last year with private
companies providing all employees. Wray said his union has heard
repeated complaints about lax supervision, high turnover and mistreatment of
inmates at both prisons. But Thomas Stickrath,
the correction department's assistant director, said operations there are
being handled efficiently. The correction department has assigned a
full-time monitor at each of the prisons to keep close tabs on privatized
operations, Stickrath said. He acknowledged
that Aramark "was not a perfect vendor.'' But when Local 11 bid on a new
contract, the union came up with ways the state employees could cut
food-service costs, Stickrath said. "We
sat down with the union and negotiated a better deal,'' he said.
Petro's audit yesterday also criticized a program that allows prisoners to
take college courses. Many inmates who enrolled in the courses never actually
attended classes, wasting $3 million, the audit found. Stickrath conceded that his agency's monitoring of the
inmate education program was "sloppy.'' New procedures have been
implemented to ensure taxpayers are not charged for courses that inmates do
not attend, he said. (The Columbus Disatch)
November 9, 2001
The Department of Rehabilitation and Correction also paid a private
food-service company $2.08 million more for meals served to inmates than the
state's contract with the company required, according to the audit. The
report by state Auditor Jim Petro has two parts. The first is an
investigation of a contract between the state and Aramark, which is based in
Oakbrook, Ill., to provide meals to inmates at Noble Correctional Institution
in Caldwell. Petro began investigating the Aramark contract in December
1999 after getting an anonymous tip that the company was billing the state
for meals it hadn't served, according to the report. A state employees'
union took over food service at Noble after Aramark's contract expired.
(AP)
May 22, 2001
Two private companies managing state-owned prisons are violating state law
and have created unnecessary dangers because of high turnover rates among
their security staff, according to one of Ohio's state employee unions.
The group says that, according to information obtained yesterday from the
Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, the Management and
Training Corp. and the CiviGenics Corp., which manage
state prisons in Conneaut and Grafton, respectively, are ignoring laws that
require the companies to keep annual turnover rates below 20 percent. CiviGenics' turnover at the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility was 52 percent for 2000, and plus an additional 13 percent
turnover in the first quarter of 2001. MTC's Lake Erie Correctional
Institution was in operation for only nine months in 2000, yet they had a 25
percent turnover among their security staff. The Criminal Justice Institute's
1999 Corrections Yearbook showed that the average reported turnover rate was
nearly 41 percent. (Ohio Civil Service Employees Association News
Release)
March 22, 2001
The Internal Revenue Service, at odds with Ohio over the state's use of
private contractors to fill prison jobs, is auditing hundreds of contracts
from 1998 and 1999. The largest of the 438 contracts were held by
psychiatrists, doctors and other medical professional, including more than 60
six-figure agreements. The IRS has strict rules for when a worker is
classified as an independent contractor, which involves a different method of
tax payment. In the state's case, the IRS is claiming that the prison
contractors should have been state employees and taxed as such, said Tina
Krueger, a lawyer with the prison system. The state argues that it's up to
private contractors to pay their own federal taxes. The contractors pay taxes
now under different IRS rules for independent contractors. (AP, March 22,
2001)
Ohio
Legislature
Security
records mixed for private prison firms: August 6, 2011 By Tom Beyerlein and Laura A. Bischoff, Daytona Daily News
New lobbyists in Ohio have strong Republican ties: July 04, 2011 By Mark Naymik,
The Plain Dealer
Jun
25, 2014 The Columbus Dispatch
The
Ohio Supreme Court agreed today to hear an appeal by Gov. John Kasich that seeks
to prevent an unprecedented court-ordered review that could invalidate
“fraudulent” parts of a prior state budget. The governor and other statewide
officials contend a hearing to dissect the 2012-13 budget bill and its
hundreds of changes in state law would illegally amount to “judicial
line-item vetoes.” The Franklin County Court of Appeals ordered the review in
finding that lawmakers violated the “one subject/one bill” provision of the
Ohio Constitution by inserting a prison-privatization measure in the $55.8
billion budget. The appellate court ordered Common Pleas Court Judge Patrick
E. Sheeran, who had previously dismissed the case, to review the budget and
strike “fraudulent” sections that violate the one-subject requirement. The
budget also addressed such diverse matters as abortion restrictions, teacher
merit pay, a gambling hot line, barber licenses and court testimony by
coroners. The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association and ProgressOhio filed the lawsuit over the section of the
budget that privatized one prison and sold another. The union seeks damages
for employees who lost jobs and invalidation of the private-prison contracts,
returning both prisons to state control and ownership. The Supreme Court also
accepted an appeal by Dale Johnston, a Grove City man who spent seven years
on Death Row after he was wrongly convicted of the murders of his
stepdaughter and her fiancé. He is asking the justices to reverse a Franklin
County Court of Appeals ruling that threw out a trial judge's finding that he
was illegally detained for the 1982 dismemberment slayings in Hocking County.
Another man was convicted of the crimes more than a quarter century later.
Such a finding is required before Johnston can obtain damages for wrongful
imprisonment from the state.
Jul
15, 2013 sfgate.
COLUMBUS,
Ohio (AP) — A private vendor in line to begin feeding roughly 100,000 prison
inmates in Ohio and Michigan has a track record of billing for food it
doesn't serve, using substandard ingredients and riling prisoners with its
meal offerings, past audits in several states show. But some states say
Philadelphia-based Aramark Correctional Services has performed well. The
audits in Ohio, Florida and Kentucky found Aramark charged states for meals
not served, changed recipes to substitute cheaper ingredients and sometimes
skimped on portions. A 2001 audit by then-Ohio Auditor Jim Petro found a
verbal amendment to Aramark's two-year contract led the state prisons
department to pay Aramark for serving almost 4.5 million meals rather than
the 2.8 million meals it actually served. That added $2.1 million to the
contract cost. An internal audit by Florida's prisons department in 2007
concluded Aramark's practice of charging the state per inmate rather than per
meal created "a windfall for the vendor" after a large number of
inmates stopped showing up for meals, reducing company costs by $4.9 million
a year. The review found the company was paid for some 6,000 meals a day that
it didn't serve. Aramark stopped serving Florida's prison meals in 2009.
Kentucky's state auditor launched a review of Aramark in response to the 2009
prison riot at Northpoint Training Center sparked over food issues. Auditor
Crit Luallen's 2010 report found Aramark overbilled
the state by as much as $130,000 a year, charging for the meals of as many as
3,300 inmates that were shown through head counts not to be incarcerated.
Besides payments for unserved meals, the audits found Aramark sometimes
substituted cheaper ingredients — receiving inmate-grown food against
contract terms or substituting less expensive meat products, for example —
without passing savings on to taxpayers. During an Ohio site visit,
inspectors reported witnessing a "near riot" at breakfast when
Aramark adhered strictly to its contractual portion sizes. In general, states
still saved money overall — the primary enticement behind the latest
privatization efforts in Ohio and Michigan. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder's
administration initially decided not to privatize certain prison services
after determining three contracts out for bid didn't achieve the savings
state law required. Fellow Republicans in the Legislature balked and
officials re-evaluated the cost estimates, ultimately awarding the contract
to Aramark on grounds the company's proposal would cut about $16 million from
the state's current $73 million food service budget. Democrats said the state
had "magically reworked the money." The Ohio Civil Service
Employees Association questions whether Aramark can deliver the $14 million
in annual savings it has promised the administration of Republican Ohio Gov.
John Kasich without cutting corners. The union, which represents roughly
8,600 state workers in Ohio's adult and youth prisons, had made its own
higher bid aimed at keeping prison food service in-house. "As much as
the state says they want to give them another shot, all you've got to do is
look at their recent history in Kentucky and Florida and you'll see they
haven't changed from when Jim Petro did his investigation years ago,"
said Tim Shafer, the union's operations director. "That's how they make
money." Calls and emails from The Associated Press to Aramark seeking
comment weren't immediately returned. The $110 million Ohio deal to feed some
50,000 inmates starts Sept. 8 and runs through June 30, 2015, with two
opportunities to extend. More than 230 of the Ohio Department of
Rehabilitation and Correction's 433 food service workers have been moved to
other positions, and additional relocations are being attempted. The deal
calls for the state to pay Aramark for serving three meals a day to the
number of inmates at the previous day's midnight census count — a per-inmate
arrangement rather than per meal like those criticized by auditors in the
past. Michigan's change of heart on cost savings also hinged on agreeing to
Aramark's assumption that all 44,000 state inmates would eat three meals a
day, a state bulletin on the matter indicated. Shafer said the contracts are
a recipe for overbilling. "Not every inmate eats. Not every inmate eats
every day. Not every inmate eats every meal," he said. JoEllen Smith, a
spokeswoman for Ohio's corrections department, said the state requested
"multiple pricing methodologies" from prospective vendors and
determined that basing the contract on midnight census counts was the most
cost-effective. She said this contract won't allow for verbal changes. Kansas
Department of Corrections spokesman Jeremy Barclay said Kansas pays Aramark
on "a kind of sliding scale" based on the average population per
facility the previous month. He said the state has had a generally positive
experience. "We've been using them for at least a decade and overall the
track record's been very good," said Barclay. "Keep in mind, we
also have internal procedures to make sure that's going well. We don't just
sign a contract and say, 'Everything will be well.' We monitor that
carefully." Kentucky has also chosen to put safeguards in place as a
result of the 2010 audit findings, said Department of Corrections spokeswoman
Lisa Lamb. Among other things, the department established a new position
devoted to helping monitor the contract, she said.
July 12, 2012 Columbus Dispatch
Arguing that workers lost their jobs and had their lives uprooted, the
state’s largest employee union has gone to court over private prisons. The
Ohio Civil Services Employees Association filed suit Monday in Franklin
County Common Pleas Court. The suit represents 270 union members who were
“laid off or otherwise negatively affected” when the state turned over the
North Central Correctional Institution in Marion to a private operator and
sold the Lake Erie Correctional Facility in Conneaut in Ashtabula County. The
union listed 11 individual employees who it said lost jobs, were “uprooted
from their communities or were wrongfully excluded from employment” when the
prisons became private. The union wants the private-prison contracts
overturned and the employees to get their old jobs back. “While we believe
this privatization is unlawful, our bigger concern is the impact that
privatization has on our members’ lives,” said union President Christopher Mabe. “Not only is privatization unsafe and bad public
business, it’s devastating for the lives of these employees and their
communities. These public servants did nothing wrong and now are being
punished by bad public policies.” Last year, the state agreed to sell the
Lake Erie prison to the Corrections Corporation of America, of Nashville,
Tenn., for $72.7 million. The state pays the company to house prisoners
there. At the same time, the Marion prison was shifted to Management and
Training Corp., of Centerville, Utah, and the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility in Lorain County, previously operated by Management and
Training Corp., was taken over by the state. Spokeswoman JoEllen Smith said
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction won’t comment because
the litigation is pending.
August 11, 2011 Portsmouth Daily Times
Two Democratic state representatives are raising concerns over the
privatization of five state prisons. The legislators, Matt Lundy (D-Elyria)
and W. Carlton Weddington (D-Columbus), sent a
public records request to the Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections
(DRC) and the governor’s office asking that the bids to privatize five Ohio
prisons be made public. “I continue to raise concerns over the secretive
process in which Ohio’s prisons are being privatized. Previous questions over
safety, cost and accountability have gone unanswered and ignored.
Unfortunately, it has become clear this is just another example of Gov.
(John) Kasich rewarding his friends,” Lundy said. “Today, we call for the
governor to release the bids that CCA (Corrections Corporation of America),
GEO Group and MTC (Management and Training Corp) have submitted. The public
deserves to know what price tag has been put on their safety.” The three
companies mentioned by Lundy have submitted bids to purchase Ohio prisons,
and, according to legislative aides for the offices of Lundy and Weddington, Kasich received contributions for his
transition fund of $10,000 each from two of the companies seeking to purchase
the prisons. They also said all three companies hired close Kasich ties to
lobby for their firms’ interest, including Kasich’s former congressional
chief of staff and two political advisors to his gubernatorial campaign. In
July, Carlo LoParo of the DRC said North Central
Correctional Institution in Marion and Grafton Correctional Institution in
Lorain County were the only two public facilities affected by privatization. LoParo said Lake Erie Correctional Institution in
Ashtabula is already a privately operated, state-owned facility, as is North
Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in Lorain. Marion Juvenile Correctional
Facility, also in Marion, is a vacant facility the DRC is including in the
sale. “I reiterate concerns today over the privatization of five state
prisons. The CIIC’s (Correctional Institution Inspection Committee) recent
report showing massive overcrowding coupled with the announcement of 950 jobs
being lost should raise red flags for the public and the Kasich
administration,” Weddingon said. “Our safety and
the safety of inmates are at risk. It is simply inexcusable that Gov. Kasich
continue to keep the legislature and the public in the dark while our safety
and security are at risk.” Kasich Spokesman Rob Nichols shot back: “It is
baffling that as a former investigative reporter and current lawmaker, Mr.
Lundy could be so catastrophically unfamiliar with Ohio Law.” Nichols was
citing ORC 125.07: “In order to ensure fair and impartial evaluation,
proposals and related documents submitted in response to a request for
proposals are not available for public inspection and copying under section
149.43 of the Revised Code until after the award of the contract.”
June 27, 2011 Crain's Cleveland Business
It's easy to miss all the tax breaks lurking in a 5,000-page document, such
as Ohio's next two-year budget. So it won't be surprising if, in the end,
several less-publicized proposals consistent with Gov. John Kasich's desire
to make the state more business friendly by lowering taxes survive the
negotiating process and make it into the budget's final form. For example,
Gov. Kasich disclosed June 16 in a speech to members of the Ohio Society of
CPAs that he would be taking to a House-Senate conference committee — thus
bypassing public scrutiny before standing committees in the Legislature — a
tax break he called “Invest Ohio.” Under this proposal, any Ohioan who
invests in any Ohio business large or small and holds that investment for two
years will pay no state income tax on any gain from that investment. Also
escaping public attention are a number of proposed tax breaks in the budget
bill involving the state's commercial activity tax, or CAT, which taxes a
business' gross receipts in Ohio at a rate of 0.26% once they exceed $1
million. (Companies with gross receipts under $1 million pay a flat $150.) A
job retention tax credit — similar to one used to keep the headquarters of
American Greetings Corp., Bob Evans Farms Inc. and Diebold Inc. in Ohio —
would give large companies that commit to keeping employees in an existing
location a CAT or income tax credit of as much as 75% of payroll for 15
years. In a similar vein, the House's version of the budget exempts operators
of private prisons from the CAT, while the Senate bill exempts those
transactions involving the sale and exchange of enriched uranium. The latter
exemption would be aimed at helping promote job creation at a proposed
uranium enrichment plant in Piketon in southern Ohio.
May 19, 2011 Journal-Register
Gov. John Kasich said his policies to spark job growth and promote business
are working. Kasich spoke about the state budget and Senate Bill 5 to more
than 200 people gathered yesterday at Kalt
Manufacturing, 36700 Sugar Ridge Road, North Ridgeville. “I don’t practice
politics as usual,” Kasich said. In the last 10 years, Ohio lost more jobs
than every state but Michigan and California, Kasich said. Young people and
families are leaving the state, which stands to lose two congressional seats
based on the 2010 Census, he said. However, Ohio’s changing policies will
keep some businesses that had considered leaving the state, Kasich said. He
cited the examples of American Greetings, Diebold, Bob Evans restaurants and
Goodyear. With a backdrop of a 20-ton lift and the new 16,000-square-foot
expansion at Kalt Manufacturing, Kasich emphasized
the jobs at that factory and other manufacturers are good jobs. Ohio’s state
government agencies needs to handle their budgets like Ohio’s families do,
Kasich said. “If you’ve got less money you’ve got to figure out what your
priorities are,” Kasich said. Young people should consider vocational
education and Ohio needs to do a better job connecting workers and employers,
Kasich said. He touted ohiomeansjobs.com, a state website that aims to match
employers and job seekers. The crowd chuckled when Kasich asserted he is from
the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young school of business development. “Love the
One You’re With,” Kasich said, repeating the title of the folk song by
Stephen Stills. Ohio first must promote growth among its existing businesses
before trying to attract new employers from elsewhere, he said. Kasich
fielded questions from the audience and those attending shared their concerns.
North Ridgeville Service Director Jeff Armbruster, a former Republican state
senator, said the community has a 1 percent income tax and the local
governments do not have the fat to trim much more. “I know at this time it’s
tough,” Kasich said. However, the key to improving municipal finances is for
new businesses to start and grow, Kasich said. The alternative is to raise
taxes, he said, but if that happens Ohio will lose jobs. Sheffield Village
Mayor John Hunter, a Democrat, said Kasich is making budget cuts on the backs
of working men and women around the state. Kasich countered that workers in
the private sector economy are hurting and Ohio is losing jobs to states such
as Texas, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida. Selling Ohio’s prisons to private companies
will drive up the police costs in Grafton, said Village Council President Tom
Smith. The governor stated the buyers would pay local taxes, Smith said, but
that policy was changed in Columbus. Kasich promised to look into that policy
because his prison chief earlier promised the private prison operators would
pay taxes.
May 3, 2011 Columbus Dispatch
Robert Klaffky, lobbyist and longtime friend
and adviser of Gov. John Kasich, was appointed by the governor to the Capitol
Square Review and Advisory Board last week. Klaffky
helped devise Kasich's plan for JobsOhio - a
private economic-development entity - during Kasich's campaign last year. Klaffky's lobbying gigs include, but are not limited to:
the GEO Group Inc., which deals in privatized prisons; CompManagement,
a managed-care organization for workers' compensation insurance; Intralot, USA, a gaming services operator; Altair
Learning Management, run by the founder of Ohio's only online charter school.
April 24, 2011 Toledo Blade
Gov. John Kasich promotes privatization as a way for state government to save
money and deliver public services more efficiently. But a credible new study
suggests the Kasich administration has yet to make a compelling case for
selling five state prisons to private contractors. The liberal advocacy group
Policy Matters Ohio examined purported savings over the past decade from
private operation of two state prisons. It concludes that the state’s methods
for calculating seemingly robust savings from the experiment were “riddled with
errors, oversights, and omissions of significant data” and were “potentially
tainted by controversial accounting assumptions.” Once those errors were
corrected, the study says, the actual savings were far less. The Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction concedes that previous
computations of cost savings were inconsistent and imprecise. A department
spokesman says the Kasich administration is using a more accurate method
based on actual operating costs of established prisons. The state posted bids
for the purchase and sale of the five prisons before the new accounting
method came on line. The administration insists updated calculations still
show Ohio’s two current private prisons are meeting their legal mandate to
produce savings of at least 5 percent over what it would cost the state to
run them. Even so, the new study raises doubts about the cost-saving claims
associated with prison privatization. Before the state sells more prisons to
private entrepreneurs, the administration must show a compelling fiscal
rationale and, just as important, resolve concerns about private prisons’
effectiveness and safety.
April 15, 2011 Columbus-Dispatch
Turning more Ohio prisons over to private operators won't save much money,
will undermine sentencing reform and will pose a security risk, the American
Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said yesterday. Prisons for Profit, an ACLU
report looking at prison privatization, concluded that Gov. John Kasich
"is not doing the taxpayers of Ohio any favors" by planning to sell
five state prisons. "Doing so will not only worsen the strain on Ohio's
budget, it will also work strongly against the rehabilitation of low-level
offenders and jeopardize the safety of ordinary Ohioans," the group
concluded. About 9 percent of nearly 1.6 million incarcerated people in the
United States are in private prisons. The Kasich administration has solicited
bids to sell the state-owned, privately operated Lake Erie Correctional
Institution in Conneaut and North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility in
Grafton; the state-owned and operated North Central Correctional Institution
in Marion and Grafton Correctional Institution in Grafton; and a closed youth
prison in Marion. Estimates of the sale proceeds range from $50million to
$200 million. Administration officials say the deal offers the state
short-term gain from the sales revenue and long-term benefit by reduced
operating costs. However, the ACLU said national studies show cost savings
from private prisons are minimal. They do make money for operators such as
Corrections Corporation of America, the largest such firm in the United
States with $1.7 billion in income last year. Donald Thibaut, Kasich's close
friend and campaign adviser, is now a lobbyist for CCA, based in Nashville,
Tenn. Robert F. Klaffky and Douglas J. Preisse, also formerly in the Kasich campaign's inner
circle, are lobbying partners representing a competing private prison firm,
the CEO Group Inc. of Boca Raton, Fla. Sentencing reform, also a goal of the
Kasich administration, would be undermined, the ACLU said, because private
operators make money by keeping facilities full. In addition, the group said,
there are more inmate-on-inmate and inmate-on-staff assaults in private
versus government-owned prisons.
March 18, 2011 Chronicle-Telegram
State Rep. Matt Lundy is questioning whether it is a conflict of interest
for state prisons director Gary C. Mohr to be involved in the matter of
selling five Ohio prisons to private companies because Mohr used to work for
Corrections Corporation of America, one of the private prison operators who
could bid on purchasing Grafton Correction Institution and North Coast
Correctional Institution in Grafton. Lundy, D-Elyria, sent a letter to the
Ohio Ethics Commission on Thursday asking the group to make recommendations
on what level of involvement is proper for Mohr. “It is important that this
perception of a conflict of interest be addressed by putting ground rules in
place,” Lundy wrote. “This perception of a conflict of interest must be taken
seriously and addressed immediately.” Carlo LoParo,
communications chief for the prison system, accused Lundy of “playing
politics.”
March 14, 2011 Chronicle-Telegram
The Grafton Correctional Institution and the North Coast Correctional
Treatment Facility will be sold as a package to a private prison operator,
state Rep. Matt Lundy, D-Elyria, said this morning. Lundy learned of the
decision when he got a phone call at 9 a.m. from Gary C. Mohr, director of
the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Lundy said. Grafton
Correctional is one of two state-operated prisons in Grafton. North Coast is
privately operated. The staff at the two prisons totals roughly 540 workers,
according to their websites. Together they hold more than 2,200 inmates. The
state will choose a private operator by the end of July, Lundy said, and it
will begin running the prisons at the start of 2012. The operator will
conduct interviews for prospective employees between Sept. 1 and the end of
the year. Private operators typically pay $13.25 per hour, less than state
pay of $15 per hour, he said.
February 2, 2011 Columbus Dispatch
Gov. John Kasich said yesterday that there will be no special favors for
three of his former inner-circle campaign advisers now lobbying for clients
that could benefit from his administration's actions. Kasich, who during the
campaign railed against special interests with their "snouts in the
trough," told The Dispatch that clients of Donald Thibaut, Robert F. Klaffky and Douglas J. Preisse
will get no preferred treatment. "All of my friends understand,"
Kasich said. "I've told them, 'You're crazy if you don't make it clear
to (clients), you don't get any favors out of me.' There is no
favoritism." Thibaut, Kasich's former congressional chief of staff and
his acknowledged closest friend, registered for the first time as a lobbyist
in a firm he created, The Credo Company. Among the six clients Thibaut
reported signing up is Corrections Corporation of America, a Nashville-based
prison operator that could benefit if Kasich seeks to privatize Ohio prisons.
CCA currently operates a federal prison in Youngstown. Gary C. Mohr, whom
Kasich appointed director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and
Corrections, spent five years as a consultant to CCA, which designs, builds
and manages federal and state prisons. Klaffky and Preisse, partners in the long-standing Capitol Square
lobbying firm of Van Meter, Ashbrook and Associates, represent The GEO Group
Inc., a Florida-based competitor of CCA.
January 31, 2011 AP
State lobbyist registration documents show a long-time adviser and political
ally to Gov. John Kasich (KAY'-sik) has lined up a
stable of clients he'll pitch to the new administration that specialize in
energy, education, technology and private prisons. One of Don Thibaut's
(TEE'-bohz) clients, Corrections Corporation of
America, could stand to gain if Kasich pursues expanded prison privatization
to help close an estimated $8 billion budget gap. The company retained
Thibaut's new lobbying firm in mid-December. Thibaut spent nearly 20 years as
Kasich's chief of staff in Congress and received compensation through
political committees associated with Kasich for a decade. Thibaut's lobbying
firm, The Credo Company, declined comment. Ohio already has two state-owned,
privately-run prisons. Neither is operated by CCA.
January 4, 2011 Columbus Dispatch
Gov.-elect John Kasich, who has said he wants to explore privatizing state
prison operations, has chosen a former longtime state prisons official who
later worked at a company that operates private prisons to run the Ohio
Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. Kasich introduced Gary C. Mohr
during a press conference this afternoon at the Ross County Courthouse in
Chillicothe, Mohr's hometown. He is the 11th cabinet nomination so far before
Kasich takes office on Monday. Kasich and Mohr pledged that all state
decisions involving privatization would publicly bid and transparent and that
Mohr would abstain from any decision involving his former employer,
Corrections Corporation of America, a private operator. Mohr, 57, worked for
three decades in the state prison system, serving as deputy agency director
under former Republican Govs. George V. Voinovich and Bob Taft. Mohr also
held a variety of other positions, including as a warden in Chillicothe and
two other facilities and both deputy director and superintendent of the
Department of Youth Services. From 2007-09, Mohr was a managing director for
Nashville-based CCA which owns and operates a private prison in Youngstown
that houses federal inmates. The company runs 60 prison facilities housing
75,000 inmates in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Mohr currently is
chief executive of the consulting company, Mohr Correctional Insight, which
has mostly worked with CCA, including instituting a new management system for
prison staffing. He has been in that position since 2009 after earlier
serving from 2005-07.
June 10, 2010 10 TV
Ohio prisons could soon become corporations if lawmakers pass a bill that
would privatize up to half of the state's correctional facilities. An e-mail
sent by the Ernie Moore, the director of Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction, warned workers of the possibility, 10 Investigates' Paul Aker
reported on Thursday. Supporters of the bill said privatizing prisons could
save tax dollars, but the prison system's union employees worry it means they
will be out of work. The Ohio Civil Service Employees Association posted the
news on its Web site and is planning for a statehouse battle. "They're worried
about, of course, the privatization of their jobs," said OCSEA Union
President Charlie Williamson. The bill asks to study and plan for a hand-over
of half of Ohio's prisons in the next couple of years. "We see this as
an opportunity to explain what we do and why it's important," Williamson
said. Sen. Tim Grendell is co-sponsoring the bill. Grendell said the plan is about cutting costs, not
cutting jobs, as lawmakers look for ways to close a looming $8 billion
deficit. Grendell said he hopes to hold hearings on
the bill by August. Union officials said the two prisons that already are
privately run are not saving the state any money, but senate leaders think
privatization could save between 10 to 20 percent a year.
January 19, 2003
Ohio's
deepening budget problems likely will force the closing of another state
prison -- the second in as many years.
The prison to be closed remains undetermined. Last year, the state shut down the
17-year-old Orient Correctional Institution to save about $19 million a
year. Irwin M. Scharfeld,
executive director of the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association, the union
representing prison employees, said the private prisons should go first. "It's more cost-effective to close the
private ones,'' he said. "It can be done almost overnight with less
impact to employees.'' (The Columbus Dispatch)
February 9, 2002
Some top Ohio lawmakers went to Washington yesterday to lobby the federal
government to turn the soon-to-be-closed Orient Correctional Institution into
a federal prison. Unfortunately for them, the real lobbyist were there first. The state has competition in its
own back yard from the Corrections Corporation of America, which is peddling
its shuttered private prison in Youngstown to the federal Bureau of
Prisons. (The Columbus Dispatch)
Prisoner
Transportation Services of America
Mar 17, 2017 wkyc.com
Inmate escapes at Cleveland
Hopkins Airport car rental facility
CLEVELAND - An inmate escaped at
a rental car facility at Cleveland Hopkins Airport after reportedly being left
unattended late Wednesday. According to police reports, Wesley Massey, 36, of
Meadville, Pennsylvania, reportedly escaped while traveling with a man who
works with a private prison transportation company. Massey was wanted on at
least one bench warrant after Conneaut Lake Regional Police in Pennsylvania
reported he fled before sentencing after facing several theft and fraud
charges. Police said Massey was accused of making more than $40,000 in
purchases on a company credit card. Authorities said he was being transported
from Florida to Cleveland, and was then to be transported by vehicle to his
final destination. The man working with the prison transportation company
reported he was at an Enterprise counter inside the car rental facility at
the airport when Massey asked to use the restroom. The man said he left
Massey unattended for a couple of minutes to return to the counter. When he
went to check on Massey, he wasn’t in the restroom. Reports stated Massey
left the facility and immediately went to the employee parking lot adjacent
to the rental car facility, and stole a grey 2013 Volkswagen Passat. Hertz
managers at the car rental facility tell WKYC Channel 3 News that the stolen
vehicle belonged to an employee who reportedly left the vehicle running before
preparing to leave for the night. The man transporting the inmate told
officials that Massey was handcuffed with shackles attached to his waist.
Massey fled in the car, but was later stopped by Pennsylvania police. Police
said he ignored verbal commands from officers and fled once again. Officers
reported Massey was speeding on I-90 in Pennsylvania, hitting about 100 mph.
Massey was eventually stopped by spike strips in Girard County. He is now
facing additional charges including fleeing and eluding police and receiving
stolen property. He was booked into Erie County Prison.
Queensgate Jail
Hamilton County, Ohio
CCA
December 24, 2008 Business Courier of Cincinnati
The Tennessee company that owns the Queensgate jail
is trying to maintain its lease with the Hamilton County, a move that could
inflate rental costs for a facility shut down in a budget-cutting move. The
822-bed jail, closed by Hamilton County Sheriff Simon Leis on Dec. 19, is
owned by Nashville-based Community Corrections Corp. of America. It signed a
two-year lease extension in 2007 that requires the county to pay about
$190,000 in monthly rent. Hamilton County officials have complained for years
about the condition of the building. That’s why the lease includes provisions
to let the county out of its contract if neither party is willing to make
necessary repairs, said Jeffrey Aluotto, assistant
Hamilton County administrator. “Both parties understood and recognized the
significant repairs that were necessary on that facility,” Alluoto said. “If neither party elects to make the
repairs, the lease terminates. It’s really that simple.” In late November,
the county sent CCA a list of repairs, including a roof replacement, new hot
water systems, an emergency power generator and heating and air conditioning
improvements. On Dec. 10, CCA sent a letter to Hamilton County Administrator
Patrick Thompson that it was willing to make some, but not all of the
repairs. CCA estimated the repairs would cost $4.5 million. On Dec. 16,
Thompson notified CCA that the county would vacate the building, terminating
the lease sometime in the next 90 days. A spokesman for CCA said the company
is working on a response to the county’s latest letter, but that response
will not include CCA’s agreement that the contract is over. “It certainly
would be our goal for the lease to continue,” said spokesman Steve Owen.
“We’re still going through their list and working on a way to address their
concerns.”
December 21, 2008 AP
One of Hamilton County's four jails has shut its doors because of budget
cuts, the first time a jail has closed in the county without a new one in
line to take its place. The closing Friday came as state officials consider
ways to shrink the state prison population in light of a projected $7 billion
state budget deficit over the next two years. Jails and prisons represent a
large portion of both local government and state budgets. Hamilton County
Sheriff Simon Leis and other county officials said there is simply no money to
keep the 822-bed Queensgate jail -- which houses
low- and medium-security prisoners -- open. The jail closed quietly Friday,
as the last dozen or so inmates were led out to black sheriff's office vans
and taken to other county jails. About 70 to 80 inmates had been at the jail
Friday morning. There were no signs or announcements. Two people who had come
to visit inmates found the door locked and the building empty.
December 16, 2008 Cincinnati Enquirer
For the first time in memory, Hamilton County will be closing a jail
without opening a new one to replace it. Hamilton County commissioners are
expected to pass a 2009 budget Wednesday night, and neither the three
commissioners nor the county sheriff have found the $10 million needed to
keep the 800-bed Queensgate jail open. That means
the proposed closure is real. The county's second-largest jail will likely
close by the end of the year. The sheriff has been releasing inmates early,
refusing admissions and delaying sentences to cut the population. As of early
Monday, the inmate count for the Queensgate jail
stood at 212. The closure leaves many concerned about public safety. "If
there's one less option available ... there certainly will be instances where
there's a recurrence of a crime," said Hamilton County Municipal Judge
Fanon Rucker. The sheriff's office stressed that serious felons and violent
offenders will remain locked up. But with fewer jail beds, the profiles of
those being released early or turned away will get worse. "We've dipped
into people with violent histories, even if they aren't here on a violent
crime," said sheriff's spokesman Steve Barnett. The cut is the product
of the worst county budget crisis in memory, caused by an economic slowdown
that devastated major revenue sources. The jail closing might be the most
high-profile cut. Other potential public safety cuts, such as funding for
township patrols, are still being discussed. The budget also will include
hundreds of job cuts, closing two of the clerk of courts' satellite offices,
and possible reduction of operating hours for the Recorder's Office. It also
cuts the Juvenile Court budget which likely will mean the closure of 20 beds
in the juvenile detention center known as "2020" because of its
address at 2020 Auburn Ave. in Mount Auburn. The Queensgate
jail is a converted warehouse that opened in 1992 as a temporary solution to
jail crowding. It houses lower-level offenders such those convicted of
drunken driving, theft or other misdemeanor crimes. A breakdown of charges
for inmates there was not available Monday. The county leases the building
from Corrections Corp. of America.
September 12, 2007 City Beat
It's rare to find a local issue so volatile that it not only pits Republicans
against Republicans and Democrats against Democrats but also forges an
unusual alliance between conservative and liberal groups who otherwise
wouldn't even talk to each other, much less cooperate on a political
campaign. The controversy over increasing Hamilton County's sales tax to
build a new jail has accomplished that unusual feat and this one: allegations
that no-nonsense Sheriff Simon Leis Jr. might have broken state election laws
in his vigorous lobbying for the tax hike... Beginning last year, Heimlich
and DeWine cut a deal with Butler County to house up to 400 prisoners there
at a cost of $55 per prisoner each day. The deal mostly ended early releases
until Hamilton County officials settled on a plan to build a new jail, but
critics call it an expensive option that cannot be used indefinitely.
Although the latest proposal would build an 1,800-bed jail, the net increase
in new space is 784 beds because the county would close an aging facility it
rents in Queensgate as well as shuttering its
Reading Road and Turning Point jail facilities to save money by consolidating
operations. By consolidating the facilities, the county's jail consultants
say it would save about $7.5 million annually or roughly $225 million over a
30-year period. The Queensgate facility has been
criticized for not meeting contemporary jail standards. Prisoners are kept in
an open area on cots on each of the building's levels. Leis and other county
officials say the design poses a security threat and is dangerous for both
prisoners and deputies. When Hamilton County began using the Queensgate space in the mid-1990s, state corrections
officials allowed the arrangement only because it was supposed to be
temporary and close in 1999. Sales tax opponents criticize Leis for not
letting them tour the facility to see conditions firsthand. Moreover, they
say the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction inspects the
facility each year, most recently in February, and found it met all 62
minimum standards set for jails. Mike Sieving, Hamilton County's construction
project executive, says the Queensgate facility
isn't structurally sound and it would take about $44 million to correct the
problems. The county rents the facility from the Corrections Corp. of America
(CCA), which has been reluctant to make any improvements on its own.
"The cost to make those repairs would actually be double that, because
we'd have to finance them, and we still wouldn't own the building,"
Sieving says. Also, Ohio corrections officials have classified Queensgate only as a minimum-security facility, but
Hamilton County has housed medium- and maximum-security prisoners there
because of the space crunch. "When the state evaluates Queensgate, they assume they will all be minimum-security
folks kept there," Sieving says. "The standards require that they
be segregated from everyone else, but we have to put them where we can."
The Queensgate building, which is about a century
old, has bowing walls that have no insulation or waterproofing. Sewers
routinely back up and overflow when there is rainy weather, and the
foundation is cracked. Additionally, Queensgate has
older-style magnetized door locks that would fail if there ever were a total
electrical blackout, which officials fear could occur due to the facility's
aging generators. Hamilton County pays $2.2 million annually to CCA to use
the site, an amount that typically increases by about 4 percent per year.
"If the sales tax is voted down, it would be like shooting fish in a
barrel to negotiate a new lease," Sieving says. "They would know
this is our only option."
March 26, 2007 WLWT
County commissioners cannot count on the existing jail as a temporary
solution while a new jail is built, the facility’s owner said. County
Commissioner Pat DeWine had proposed using the Queensgate
jail for another 10 or 15 years, but the jail’s owner requested in an e-mail
Monday that the building be removed from consideration. The Queensgate jail is inside a warehouse that is more than
100 years old and is operated by Corrections Corporation of America.
SEPTA
Correctional Facility
Jun 3, 2017 bc6onyourside.com
Documents reveal security
concerns prior to seven escapes at correctional facility
An inmate who was only at a
private prison for a week, managed to escape making him the seventh person to
get out in the last nine months. Razor wire sits in spools outside SEPTA
Correctional Facility in Nelsonville, while deputies search for Richard Rush
III. Upgrades were planned for the facility but had not been completed before
Wednesday night’s most recent escape, according to the program’s director.
“We will not be armed in this facility,” director Scott Weaver said. “It’s
not the intent although we’re labeled as a correctional facility, our intent
is to integrate the inmates back into society.” Weaver said Rush was is the
facility for drug-related charges and was in the recreational yard Wednesday
on the second tier, when he climbed the fence and took off. Since September,
reports show at least six other inmates escaped from the facility since
September. The facility considers the inmates low-level offenders. The state
does not operate the facility, however, SEPTA requested a security assessment
in April following more inmate escapes. ABC 6 On Your Side Investigates was
told details and recommendations are not public since it’s security
information. However, those recommendations are being implemented now,
according to facility staff. It was said more staffing, lights and cameras
are being added. ABC 6 On Your Side Investigates obtained the most recent
August 2015 audit report on SEPTA by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation
and Correction. It noted several areas SEPTA could improve its operations,
including: Provide at least 40 hours of structured activity for each inmate
every week. Separate low-risk from high-risk offenders in treatment groups to
avoid negative influence on low-risk offenders. Limit groups size to 12 for
treatment because in many cases there were 20 inmates to one facilitator.
Director should better supervise staff and provide training and feedback on a
routine basis. To avoid future overspending like in 2015, it’s suggested
treatment programs avoid oversights. Surveillance of inmates, especially
those deemed suicidal, assault or an escape risk, SEPTA was considered
“compliant,” according to the 2015 audit. That requires inmates be checked
upon every 20 minutes. Additional security improvements, while they aren’t
being discussed, Weaver said are in the works right now.
Summit County Justice Center
Summit County, Ohio
Oriana House
November 25, 2003
Summit County's common pleas judges need to get a grip on, and provide more
control over, the Community Based Correctional Facility that it created 16
years ago, according to a performance audit to be released today by State
Auditor Betty Montgomery. And because CBCF Director James Lawrence is
also the president of Oriana House -- the private, nonprofit corporation the
county hired to run the facility -- Montgomery referred the matter to the
Ohio Ethics Commission for review. Under such an arrangement, the audit
said, ``the director is required to oversee the financial activities of his
own corporation,'' presenting a potential conflict of interest. ``In
terms of fulfilling its mission, Oriana House and Summit CBCF appear to get
the job done,'' Montgomery said, ``but we have grave concerns about the lack
of checks and balances in the way the program is governed.'' The audit
is the latest turn in a continuing fracas over the county's alternative jail
program and the larger corporation that runs it. Both the privately run
alternative jail and its parent company, Oriana House Inc., have been under
the direction of Lawrence since it was established in 1987. As the
county's sole private contractor for alternative jail services, Oriana has
been under increasing scrutiny during the past several years for receiving
more than $60 million in unbid county contracts. Among a raft of
recommendations to be made today by Montgomery's office are tighter reins on
costs, regular competitive bidding and stronger oversight by the Judicial
Corrections Board, which is made up of the county's judges. (Ohio.com)
September 24, 2003
Nobody expected Betty Montgomery's special audit of Oriana House to proceed
without friction. The state auditor, a possible Republican candidate for
governor in 2006, has close ties to Alex Arshinkoff,
the Summit County Republican Party chairman, who has long questioned
operations at Oriana House. James Lawrence, the Oriana House president,
also has political connections, and he isn't shy about using them. Lawrence
often plays both sides of the aisle with his contributions. Locally, he has
been close to Wayne Jones, the Summit County Democratic Party finance
chairman. Even so, Montgomery's special audit, announced early this
year, appeared to be going smoothly -- until early September, when she went
after the financial records of Correctional Health Services Inc. Correctional
Health is a wholly owned, for-profit subsidiary of the nonprofit Oriana
House. Lawrence moved to block the search, filing suit in Franklin County
Common Pleas Court. To make a credible assessment of Oriana House,
Montgomery must follow the public money. Oriana House has received more than
$60 million as the sole provider of alternative jail services to Summit
County with no competition and, until recently, too little financial oversight.
In this situation, the relationships are clear and direct. Oriana House and
Correctional Health are both headed by Lawrence. They share the same address.
Oriana House receives tax dollars to operate; Correctional Health supplies
services for and leases space and other property to Oriana House. (The
Beacon Journal)
Tom Eberly worked for Summit County for only eight months before
he was fired, but that was enough time to step on some powerful toes. The
trouble started when a consultant issued a damning report about Summit
County's Criminal Justice system. The report had been a year in the making
and cost taxpayers $195,500, so Eberly--the county's new fresh-faced,
35-year-old criminal justice coordinator--naturally saw as his job to pursue
some of the report's ideas. But those changes would have diminished the flow
of government contracts and power enjoyed by Oriana House, a company that has
grown to become the largest private player in the county's corrections
system. The company had resisted changes to its multimillion-dollar contracts
before, and would resist Eberly, too. Oriana House's president has given more
than $100,000 to Ohio politicians in the past six years, and the single
biggest recipient was Eberly's then-boss, County Executive Tim Davis. Before
long, Eberly was out the door. County leaders are poised to ignore the advice
of their own consultant and hand Oriana House $4.8 million in new contracts
Tuesday--once again without competitive bidding. Normally, that would be
illegal, but in 1999 a powerful state senator -- the now retired Roy Ray, who
had received campaign contributions, too--pushed through a special provision
tailored specifically for Oriana House making the bids unnecessary. Until
recently, the county had commissioned an outside audit only once to ensure
Oriana House is meeting the terms of its contracts--and hired Oriana House's
own accounting firm to do the work. So county officials commissioned a third
study. This time, they hired Alan Kalmanoff,
director of the Institute for Law and Policy Planning in Berkeley,
California. Kalmanoff issued a report that
lambasted county officials for allowing Oriana House to take over the
criminal justice system. He described a "lavish" community
corrections system, a county executive with "inadequate control"
and "inappropriate" no-bid contracts. Kalmanff's
unusually strongly worded report hinted at quid-pro-quo political
contributions and patronage, but even he may not have realized the extent.
While Oriana House's fortunes flourished Lawrence regularly attended campaign
fund-raiser and emerged as a top political giver. Lawrence also became an
influential supporter of key state lobbyists, including the brother of Ohio
Auditor Jim Petro. In all, Lawrence contributed more than $100,000
during the past six years to local, state, and federal campaigns, most
of it in Summit County. Locally, the top recipients were Davis, former
Sheriff Richard Warren and Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic,
all Democrats.
Summit County Jail
Summit, Ohio
Prison Health Services
March 25, 2004
A woman who works as a registered nurse at the Summit County Jail now finds
herself behind bars. Akron resident Mary M. Gatskie,
57, was charged Tuesday with one felony count of theft of dangerous drugs
after Summit County sheriff's detectives received a tip that she had taken
drugs from the jail. When investigators went to the woman's Sunset
Avenue home Tuesday to question her, Lt. John Karabatsos said, they saw a
pill bottle with another person's name on it in her kitchen. After being
questioned about the bottle, Gatskie admitted
taking the drugs from the jail, Karabatsos said. A subsequent search
uncovered a variety of other drugs, including ones prescribed to inmates for
mental health reasons. ``These drugs were intended for inmates,'' Karabatsos
said. Gatskie is not a county employee, but
works for Prison Health Services, which is under contract to provide medical
services to inmates. She has worked at the jail for about two years.
Karabatsos said that Gatskie, as a regular worker
at the jail, was not patted down for drugs, but was checked daily for
concealed weapons. A Summit County grand jury could add charges,
Karabatsos said. (Beacon Journal)
Trumbell County Jail
Trumbell, Ohio
Acme Steak Co.
January 6, 2003
Food
costs for the Trumbull County Jail dropped by about 27 percent the
first full month since officials made the switch from a no-bid agreement with
a Youngstown company to the state purchasing program. The drop came despite the addition of about
4,000 meals in December than the previous month, as the jail kitchen started
dishing up meals for inmates at the juvenile center. "I'm very happy about it," said
Ernie Cook, chief deputy of the sheriff's department, which runs the adult
jail. He estimated that by using state
purchasing instead of Acme Steak Co., taxpayers will save about $32,000 a
year. (The Vindicator)
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