|
San Miguel County Jail, San
Miguel, New Mexico
A walkout by 11
detention officers and an anonymous note from an inmate warning of violence
and destruction on Wednesday led to a shutdown at the San Miguel County
Jail. Specially trained officers from the State Police and Corrections
Department, called in by jail administrator Patrick W. Snedeker,
marched into the jail a few minutes before 5 p.m. By 8 p.m., they had found
several metal shanks and some wooden ones, and identified six inmates who
will be shipped to the Northern New Mexico Correctional Facility outside
Santa Fe. Snedeker, the jail's warden for the
few weeks since San Miguel County ended its relationship with private jail
operator Correctional Systems Inc., said changes in the jail's operations
probably brought problems to the surface. "We've had some
challenges," Snedeker said. "Transition
and change often affect people that way." Earlier in the week,
three officers quit because they were assigned to supervise inmate crews in
roadside cleanup, Snedeker said. The 11 who left on
Wednesday didn't state specific reasons, he said. Besides the handmade
weapons, State Police and Department of Corrections officers found a cell
wall that had been damaged in what is thought to have been an escape attempt.
Snedeker said that last weekend three inmates were
discovered with part of a metal door frame and were attempting to damage a
ceiling. As the county began managing its jail again a few weeks ago,
new procedures were put in place to familiarize each officer with every unit
and work station, Snedeker said. As those changes
began, some officers weren't happy, he said. (ABQ Journal, July 29,
2004)
Seal
Beach City Jail, Seal Beach City, California
August 20, 2005 News-Herald
The defendants in the murder of former Mentor woman Jackie Hawks and her
husband, Tom, face charges in another murder plot, according to the Orange
County District Attorney's Office in California. Skylar
DeLeon, 26, and his wife, Jennifer, 24, along with Skylar DeLeon's cousin, Michael
William Lewis Jr., 24, of Arizona, face charges in connection with the death
of 45-year-old John Jarvi in December, according to
a statement released Friday by Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas. Skylar DeLeon is accused of murdering Jarvi,
and Jennifer DeLeon and Lewis are accused of
helping him conceal the murder, the statement says. All three were charged
Thursday, court records state. Investigators accuse Skylar
of stealing $50,000 from Jarvi, whom he met in 2003
while the men were on a work furlough program at a private jail in Seal
Beach, Calif., the statement says. Prosecutors say that at the time, Skylar was unemployed and supporting his pregnant wife, and the two were heavily in debt.
|
|
Seal
Beach City Jail, Seal Beach City, California
August 30, 2001
Two fired guards were indicted Wednesday for allegedly orchestrating a fight
between two inmates at the Seal Beach City Jail, prompting the city to review
its ties to the private company that operates the facility. The former
guards, who worked for Correctional Systems Inc. before being fired, are
accused by a federal grand jury of arranging and concealing an attack on a
drunken inmate who was singing boisterously in the jail's detoxification
cell. According to the U.S. attorney's office, one of the officers
allegedly goaded the attacker before escorting him into the detoxification
cell for the beating. The second guard allegedly helped cover up the
incident, which left 28-year-old Arrow Stowers of
Huntington Beach badly bruised and bloodied. The motive for the June 21
attack, prosecutors said, was to quiet down Stowers.
CSI's management of the jail has been an issue in the past, including
lawsuits saying guards did not properly respond to the medical problems of
two inmates who died there. The company came under scrutiny in 1996
after an inmate at the Seal Beach jail said his fellow inmates regularly
smoked marijuana and drank alcohol in view of guards. Those allegations
prompted police and company officials to search the facility, but no drugs or
alcohol were discovered. Other cities that have contracted with CSI
have reported problems. Hawthorne police canceled their pact with CSI
last year after 18 months and retook control of the jail. "The
biggest issue with CSI was they didn't have sufficient guards to handle our
jail... They would have them work as long as 18 hours, so the guards were
unhappy and we were unhappy," said Hawthorne Police Capt. Richard
Prentice. "But we didn't have any problems like this; never did we
have any indication they were abusive to prisoners." In addition,
the company has been hit with two wrongful-death lawsuits since 1999 related
to the two inmate deaths at the Seal Beach jail. The company was
accused in each case of failing to protect inmates admitted with medical
problems. One lawsuit was settled and the other is pending, said
attorney Timothy Ryan, who represented family members in both cases.
(Los Angeles Times)
|
