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Puerto Rico prisons
Aug 11, 2018 thecrimereport.org
Prisoner Transport Deal Could Cost Puerto Rico Over $10 Million: Report
The island is still reeling from an estimated $95 billion in damage
caused by Hurricane Maria last year. Photo by Roosevelt Skerrit
via Flickr The transport by a private corrections
company of more than 1,000 prisoners to the U.S. could cost the beleaguered
island of Puerto Rico over $10 million, according to the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI).
During contract negotiations with CoreCivic, one of
the leading private corrections firms in the U.S., the government tried to
lower the company’s proposed daily fee of between $63 and $67 per inmate. But
the final agreement, not yet signed, has remained more or less the same,
Puerto Rico Corrections Secretary Erik Rolón told
the CPI, a nonprofit news outlet partnered with the Law Faculty of the
Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico. The
contract is still pending review by Puerto Rico’s Fiscal Control Board. “This
is a contract that will probably exceed $10 million,” Rolón
told CPI. Transport flights to Arizona could begin as early as Aug. 15, CPI
reported. Authorities said as many as 1,200 prisoners would be sent to
Arizona. The island plans to transport a total of 3,200 prisoners,
representing 30 percent of the total incarcerated population on the island,
to private prisons in the U.S. over the next five years. Rolón
told CPI that the usual regulations governing prisoner transport to the U.S.
won’t apply to those inmates in Puerto Rico’s “Out of State” program. Inmates
slated for departure still haven’t been given an orientation on their new
destination, La Palma Correctional facility in Arizona. “In the past, what
has happened is that [prisoners] were transported to the United States, and
when they said—’look, the conditions here are not what you offered, we want
to be brought back to Puerto Rico,’ nothing happened,” Thalia
Méndez, Corrections Advisor for Puerto Rico’s Legal
Aid Society, told CPI. “The regulation [standards] were
never met. Imagine how much worse it will be if those regulations are created
after they are already transferred.” “Our primary concern is that there has
not been transparency with regards to which prisoners will ultimately be
moved,” said Yahaira Colón, a Legal Aid attorney,
in and interview with CPI. Colón also questioned
what will happen to those inmates who have matters still pending before the
courts, if the first flight is already scheduled to leave on August 15—and
whether they will receive legal representation. Earlier stories in mainland media said
the island was considering “offloading” up to 3,200 prisoners to U.S. private
facilities as part of a money-saving plan to close up to one-third of its
jails and prisons.
The plan has met with fierce opposition from civil rights groups. In
April, more than 50 lawyers, academics and representatives of international
human rights groups signed a declaration opposing the transfer, saying it
will cause additional hardship to families of prisoners, who will find it
difficult to visit them. “Rehabilitation (of prisoners) should not be subject to
an economic rationale,” the declaration said. The island’s already troubled economy
took a severe hit last year from Hurricane Maria. Many of the island’s
detention facilities were rendered unusable by the September 20, 2017 storm.
On Wednesday, in a report to Congress, Puerto Rican authorities released
figures showing that 1,427 people more people died in the four months
following the hurricane than in the similar period a year earlier—effectively
the first concrete acknowledgement of Maria’s death toll. Reports also suggested an upsurge in
crime and domestic violence following the storm. In May 2017, the Commonwealth declared
what was essentially a form of bankruptcy in order to cope with an estimated
$123 billion in debt and pension obligations, The New York Times reported. Adding to the island’s financial
burden, addressing the effects of the storm and its aftermath, which left
most of the inhabitants without power for weeks and months, will cost up to
$95 billion, according to Gov.Ricardo Rosselló—making it one of the five costliest storms in
U.S. history.
August 27, 2004
Case name:Feliciano, et
al. v. Rullan, et al., No. 04-1300 (1st Cir.
08/06/04). Ruling: Although an appeals court characterized the denial of
medical and mental health services in Puerto Rico's prisons as massive and
systematic, it refused to derail court-mandated improvements that have failed
for more than 30 years. When a new secretary of health, John A. Rullan, was appointed over the prison system in 2003, he
appealed to the court to discontinue the injunctive orders and fines and void
a 10-year-old contract held with a private prison health care company. Rullan said the company has yet to see a single patient,
although it has worked for a decade to put in place the necessary
infrastructure to clean up the system. (Corrections Professional)
Judge under federal
investigation
August 4, 2004
At a time when Secretary of Justice Anabelle
Rodriguez was confirmed by the Senate to the post of Associate Judge to
Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court, the Federal Prosecutor Office received an
official request from Judge Juan Perez Gimenez for
an investigation of Rodriguez.
On Wednesday Perez Gimenez said that he would seek
federal determination as to whether Rodriguez, confirmed on Monday to the
island’s highest court, engaged in criminal acts when she refused to follow a
federal court order related to the Morales Feliciano prison overcrowding
case.
According to published reports, the document in which Judge Perez Gimenez orders Chief Federal Prosecutor in San Juan, Humberto Garcia, to investigate and notify the courts of
possible criminal violations allegedly incurred by Rodriguez, was received
only hours after the confirmation of the Secretary to the Supreme
Court. Judge Perez Gimenez requested the
investigation after a hearing in which a letter written by Rodriguez was
presented, the letter instructed Corrections Secretary Miguel Pereira and
Secretary of Health Johnny Rullan to follow
interagency guidelines and not federal mandates regarding prison medical
services. Department of Justice attorney Carlos del Valle accused Perez
Gimenez of punishing and persecuting Rodriguez
because she challenged constitutional matters in the Federal Court, while
challenging his ruling in the Boston Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling in question regard the jurisdiction in the
administration of correctional medical services, which transferred authority
from the local government to a private provider contracted by Department of
Correction. Rodriguez immediately rejected the allegations because his
ruling on the Morales Feliciano case is under appeal in Boston. (Puerto
Rico Wow)
Guayama Correctional Center
Guayama, Puerto Rico
CCA
May 9, 2002
Corrections Corporation of America
yesterday said Puerto Rico planned to end a third contract under
which the company manages a prison for the
commonwealth. Officials of the commonwealth believe they
can run the prisons more cheaply. (Tennessean.com)
CSC Maximum Security Juvenile Detnetion and Treatment Facility
Salinas,
Puerto Rico
CSC
December
2, 2002
CSC today announced the sale of its 132 bed maximum security juvenile dentention and treatment facility in Salinas, Puerto Rico
to the Juvenile Institutions Administration of the Commonwealth of Puerto
Rico ("AIJ") for $15 million. The facility was built as the
result of a contract award to CSC by AIJ, which required the company to
design, build and operate the facility. Although construction was
completed in January 2001, the facility was never occupied by AIJ. At
the time the facility was ready to receive juveniles, the Commonwealth
requested CSC negotiate the sale of the facility to AIJ. James F.
Slattery, president and CEO stated. Mr. Slattery further stated,
"The sale of the Salinas facility is a significant milestone for our
company. For two years we have been attempting to find a way to free up
the capital invested in this family which was not providing us with any
return. The situation has been a major distraction for upper management
and has stifled our ability to execute on certain aspects of our strategic
plan. (Yahoo Finance)
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