POLICY MAKING - CCA - WACKENHUT - CSC - CORNELL - MTC - SODEXHO CAMPAIGN - FEDERAL BAILOUT - INTERNATIONAL
Utah:
State may pay Cornell settlement
Agencies urged to 'be more careful' in contractor talks
Utah: State may pay Cornell settlement II
Cornell: Ex-Inmate
Files Claim Alleging Rape in Jail
Albuquerque Journal
May
12, 2001
Journal Staff Report
The attorney for a Las Vegas, N.M., woman has filed a claim alleging the woman was raped by an employee of the privately run Santa Fe County jailwhile she was an inmate and that a former guard also tried to rape her.
The claim by Mary Lucinda Valdez, 23, follows a federal suit filed earlier this year by three women who were locked up at the jail claiming the former guard, Marcus Trujillo, sexually abused them. Another former inmate said this week she intends to sue the jail after guards forced her and other women locked up there to mix with male prisoners.
According to the claim filed for Valdez by Taos attorney Stephen M. Peterson, she was a federal prisoner at the jail from April 2000 through March 13, 2001.
The claim, filed earlier this month, names Santa Fe County, Texas-based Cornell Cos., which operates the jail under contract with the county, Trujillo, and the unidentified employee as potential defendants of a lawsuit.
Paul Doucette, Cornell's director of public affairs, declined comment on the claim on Friday but said Trujillo was fired from his job earlier this year, "several days after the incident." He was uncertain of the date.
He wouldn't comment further on Valdez's accusations, but said a criminal investigation found no wrongdoing.
Santa Fe County Undersheriff Benjie Montano said his department conducted that investigation with the U.S. Marshals Service, since Valdez was a federal prisoner. He referred questions to the Marshals Service, which couldn't be reached after business hours on Friday.
No telephone listing was found in the Santa Fe area for Trujillo.
According to the claim: During one incident, Trujillo walked into Valdez's cell, shoved her against a wall, and kissed and fondled her. She fought him off and reported the incident to an unnamed jail captain. On another occasion, another employee whose identity Valdez did not know coerced her to have sex with him in her cell. Though she did not attempt to fight him off, the claim says, the sex was not consensual. She did not report that incident.
"I think when you report it to somebody on the inside and nothing really happens and you're in a prison situation, it's pretty difficult to know who to talk to," said Peterson, who was uncertain of the dates of either incident.
The jail employee, though, later bragged he was having sex with Valdez and other female inmates, prompting another inmate to complain, the claim says.
Valdez was interviewed by Santa Fe County sheriff's detectives about the complaints, which lead to further harassment by another jail employee who was related to her alleged attacker, the claim says.
Valdez was then moved to a facility in Sandoval County by the U.S. Marshals Service, which her attorney said may lend credence to her claims. "I think that there was a concern on their part that the events may have occurred and they want to take reasonable precautions," Peterson said.
The claim says Valdez intends to sue for alleged negligence, assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress, sexual harassment and rape. Valdez was jailed in Santa Fe County on federal drug charges, Peterson said, and is now in a halfway house in Albuquerque. He was uncertain of the disposition of her case.
The federal suit, which has not gone to trial, was filed by attorneys for Angelique Romero, Tamara Martinez and Iris Gallegos and claimed Trujillo touched them inappropriately while they were inmates in June and July of 2000.
Attorneys for another former Santa Fe County inmate, Carmen Jaramillo, said this week they plan to file suit on her behalf alleging guards at the jail forced her and five other female inmates to mix with male prisoners in March.Doucette said Cornell has since relocated the jail's female prisoners to assure they remain separate from their male counterparts and now requires that guards for the female prisoners be women.
The jail averages about 630 prisoners, 100 of whom are women.
CCA getting $520,000 more than
agreed to in contract
By GETAHN WARD
Staff Writer and Bloomberg News
Corrections Corporation of America said the Federal Bureau
of Prisons will award the company $520,000 above what it is due
under contracts to house inmates at two prisons.
The award is a result of the prison operatorís exceeding minimum
provisions of contracts to house federal inmates at its Eloy (Ariz.)
Detention Center and its California City (Calif.) Correctional
Center.
It follows a semi-annual performance review by the Bureau of
Prisons.
The Arizona prison will receive $285,000; the California prison
will receive $235,000, Nashville-based CCA said.
Its shares rose 7 cents to 71 cents.
Triad Hospitals Inc. of Dallas, which recently acquired
Brentwood-based Quorum Health Group Inc., said it has
completed the sale of two hospitals in Minot, N. D., to Trinity
Health.
The sold hospitals ó UniMed Medical Center and Kenmare
Community Hospital ó were inherited through Triadís purchase
of Quorum.
Buyer Trinity Health is a nonprofit hospital company in Minot.
Triad said it expects proceeds of $46 million.
Shares of the owner and manager of hospitals and ambulatory
surgery centers yesterday rose 21 cents to $29.70.
By Jenn West
Temple News
Temple U.
(U-WIRE) PHILADELPHIA
-- Students across the country have been boycotting
Sodexho Marriott Services, the catering company contracted by Temple
University and
other schools across the nation to provide dining services to their students.
The protests are
part of a student-led campaign called "Not with our Money!" which is
part of the larger Prison Moratorium Project. Students are protesting
the growing
involvement of the French multinational company Sodexho Alliance in the
global private
prison industry.
Students at various
schools have staged protests, which range from sit-ins to outdoor
picnic boycotts against corporations that finance the expansion of prisons-for-profit.
Sodexho protests have taken place on more than 50 of the 500 campuses
where the
company operates dining halls and food courts.
Kevin Pranis, a Board
member and coordinator for the Prison Moratorium Project,
said that the actual protests against Sodexho started over a year ago
with 10 schools
protesting, in some form, on April 4. Of those 10 original schools, four
now use dining
services other than Sodexho. In more recent events, protests at a number
of schools
have increased the number of victories. Some schools have broken their
contracts with
Sodexho early and others have called off talks with the company.
"Clearly, the company
has been forced to respond," Pranis said. He added that
Sodexho has said it will sell its shares in the CCA, but that has yet
to happen.
The project originally
targeted just the New York area, but that quickly enlarged to
much of the United States and most recently to London and Paris.
The PMP exists still
as a resource for interested college and university organizations.
Pranis said that at the current time, actually going out and setting
up events at campus is
difficult and nearly all the recent organizations that have pledged support
to the protests
have been the one to contact the project.
These organizations
are a wide variety, ranging from student governments to sweatshop
activists and even culturally oriented groups.
Sodexho is one of
the world's largest private prison catering services. It is also the
largest shareholder in the Corrections Corporation of America, which
runs for-profit
private prisons in which numerous human rights violations against inmates
and guards
allegedly occur.
If these private
prisons can make housing inmates cheaper than what the federal
government pays, then the prison can pocket the profit, which proves
to be appealing
to Sodexho who has shares in the CCA.
In order to conserve
money, the CCA has reportedly resorted to such tactic as,
supplying inmates with only one blanket, no toilet paper, withholding
pre-natal care for
pregnant inmates and in worst cases depriving ill inmates of proper medical
attention.
For-profit prisons
operate by charging the federal government money for the housing of
each prisoner in the private prison.
Through grant money,
the "Not With Our Money" campaign has expanded to numerous
campuses and is working to discontinue Sodexho contracts across the country.
They
believe that profiteering from the imprisonment of people compromises
public safety
and is a corruption of justice.
Students across America,
not excluding Temple students, purchase Sodexho Marriott
meal plans, thereby supporting the Sodexho Alliance and its private for-profit
prisons,
according to the protest group. Across the country students have promoted
change in
discontinuing their Sodexho Marriott contract due to their CCA affiliation.
Sodexho Marriott
Services generates $1.2 billion in annual revenues not only from
college campuses, but also provides institutional food services to public
schools,
hospitals and corporate cafeterias.
As Sleep-out continues on
past the two day mark, local radio station
invites college activists into studio. Nate Livingston interviewed
freshman at Xavier, Brian Loewe, on his afternoon talk radio show.
Audio of the interview available
in mp3 format at
http://www.geocities.com/bsplat
Students have now reached
the 59 hour mark in their "Caged-In,
Sleep-Out, Speak-Out" outside of their president's office. "As finals
week is coming up, many of us are worried about our exams. But Jesuits
teach that justice cannot be secondary, it must be at the core of the
university. We are taking this to heart and making justice on campus
our primary concern. Our president said he would have a statement
prepared this week, hopefully he'll have it tomorrow so that our grades
won't suffer due to our work towards justice."
http://news.excite.com/news/uw/010423/university-193
U. Texas students, officials discuss Sodexho contract
Updated 12:00 PM ET April 23, 2001
By Celina Moreno
Daily Texan
U. Texas-Austin
(U-WIRE) AUSTIN, Texas -- Three students met with University of Texas-Austin President Larry Faulkner and other UT officials Friday to express theirobjections to a possible renewal of a food concessions contract with Sodexho-Marriot Inc., whose parent company, Sodexho Alliance, holds stock in a for-profit private prison company.
Students opposed the contract, arguing that the University's connection with Sodexho Alliance and its stock in the Corrections Corporation of America is "bad public policy."
Sodexho Alliance owns 8 percent of stock in CCA, which has been accused of numerous human rights violations, said Kevin Pranis, a board member for the Prison Moratorium Project, an information resource group based in New York City.
Pranis added that despite promises made by Sodexho Alliance to divest its shares in the private prison industry, it has increased its investments by purchasing 100 percent ownership in the United Kingdom Detention Services and the Corrections Corporation of Australia.
Bob Libal, a communication studies and government sophomore who attended the meeting, said the false promises made by Sodexho were meant to respond to student protests around the country.
"Despite what Sodexho Alliance says, they've made no efforts to divest any of their shares in CCA and instead have, since their original announcement,obtained full ownership of two prison agencies," Libal said. "That would indicate that they're trying to appease student protesters across the country when, in actuality, furthering their involvement with CCA and the for-profit prison industry."
Steven Owen, director of marketing for CCA, said Thursday that allegations of human rights abuses are false.
"That is absolutely not true," Owen said. "Oftentimes we are held to higher standards than our govermental counterparts, and we must meet all state laws and
federal laws."
Aaron Garza, president of the Undergraduate Student Association and a communication studies sophomore, said administrators should seriously consider concerns of student protesters and Student Government, who recently passed a resolution opposing the renewal of the Sodexho-Marriot contract.
"The students have made a mandate end the contract with Sodexho-Marriot," Garza said. "And because students comprise this University, the student interest should be the University's interest."
Faulkner said when a company's integrity is being questioned, the allegations against the company should be accurate.
"If the behaviors demonstrated [by CCA prisons] are egregious, then certainly we need to look at them," Faulkner said. "But the University also believes in not convicting people on hearsay."
Libal said students provided Faulkner with a 30-page packet at the meeting that documents student opposition to the contract and cites human rights abusesthat have been documented by several human rights organizations.
"Students have done a really good job at researching the misdoings of CCA, and the administration need not look much further than looking at condemnations by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and by several state governors who already threatened to or already ended contracts because of numerous human rights violations and because of CCA's reluctance to allow investigations by state agencies," Libal said.
The decision to contract with a bidder will be made by the middle of May, said Faulkner, who added that the University is not equipped to carry out a criminal investigation of CCA's prisons and should not make a decision to renew the food contract with Sodexho-Marriot before all bids are received.
Section 1.2 of the Request For Proposal, which is sent to the contract bidders, states "Professional entertainment and other events (including, but not limited to, banquets, trade show and clinics) will be included in the scope of responsibility."
Garza said because catering events will be contracted to the concessionaire, even a complete student boycott of Sodexho-Marriot food products would be ineffective. He added that since the contract will last for seven years, student opinion is of the utmost importance.
"It means that the opinions of SG and the student body are irrelevant in the face of profit," Garza said. "For seven more years, we'd be funding torture and slavery that even a full student boycott could not prevent, because whoever gets that contract gets that money whether the students eat the food or not."
New Mexico: Halfway house raises
concerns.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/316181news04-25-01.htm
Wednesday, April 25, 2001
THE BEACON JOURNAL
Posted at 3:58 p.m. EDT Thursday, April 26, 2001
BY LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The company poised to take over operation of a prison in northeast Ohio has few blemishes in its past and recently scored high marks for its management of Ohio's only other privately run state prison. Management & Training Corp., of Ogden, Utah, will run the North Coast Correctional Treatment Facility, a 552-bed minimum-security prison in Grafton, when the current operator's contract ends June 30.
The state didn't renew its $14.8 million contract with CiviGenics Corp., of Marlboro, Mass., because of increasing problems at the prison. The prison had five different wardens in its first 18 months, and the state said CiviGenics did not meet minimum staffing levels. The state did not immediately release the amount of MTC's contract. MTC came under similar scrutiny at least once since getting into the prison industry in 1987. In 1995, the Arizona Department of Corrections released a scathing report charging that that state's first privately run prison, the MTC-run Marana Community Correctional Treatment Facility, was plagued by staffing problems.
The report was highly critical of MTC's salaries for corrections officers, saying the prison was crippled by an employee turnover rate exceeding 80 percent. The report said the company paid 18 percent less than what state paid.
Ron Russell, MTC's senior vice president for corrections, recently called the Arizona report an attempt by a small group of officials there to try to discredit private prisons.
He said no one contacted MTC when compiling the report, which covered the company's first year of operating the prison. Industry observers say both private companies and public agencies normally hit many kinks during the first year of running a new facility. ``There's kind of a shakedown period,'' said Charles W. Thomas, former director of the Private Corrections Project at the Center for Studies in Criminology and Law at the University of Florida.
But if MTC had a difficult first year operating Ohio's Lake Erie Correctional Institution in Conneaut, it didn't show in audits done by the state and the American Corrections Association nine months after the prison opened in April 2000.
According to the audits, MTC met 90.5 percent of state standards, 100 percent of mandatory standards and 98.1 percent of non-mandatory standards set by ACA for certification for the 1,380-bed medium-security prison. The company and observers attribute MTC's success in the industry to its history of being a privately held company focused on education. MTC's roots date to 1966 when it was the education division of Thiokol Corp. and first contracted with the federal government to operate Job Corps centers. Job Corps provides at-risk youth with vocational, academic, and social skills training. The company continues to operate 24 centers nationwide.
``They're using some of the skills and management abilities they gleaned from running their job centers as a springboard into a more thought-out plan for running prisons,'' said Frank Mylar, who has represented the Utah State Department of Corrections as an assistant attorney general and has been an adjunct professor of corrections law at the University of Utah.
MTC, unlike most other private prison companies, seems to have a commitment to training inmates -- and not simply warehousing them -- so they can make a smooth transition to freedom after incarceration, Mylar said. He called MTC's move into the prisons business from the education field ``a natural link for them.''
Thomas credits MTC's success to it
being a privately held rather than a publicly
traded company, freeing it from pressure by shareholders. ``One
of the benefits is that they don't have to have the Wall Street analysts
birddogging them every single business quarter,'' he said. Because
the company isn't publicly traded, Russell said, officials are able to
focus on a management plan that bolsters MTC's reputation first and its pocketbook
second.
``If we do a job that we're supposed to do, profit comes later,'' Russell said. ``The better we can apply education, the better we can reduce recidivism. And that's our goal.''
Australia: Wackenhut doing full-body cavity searches
http://www.abc.net.au/news/state/vic/archive/metvic-15may2001-10.htm
Prison operators reject claims of body searches
Victorian prison managers have rejected claims that inmates are being subjected to illegal daily body searches.
The claims were made by prisoners at the privately run Port Phillip and Fulham jails.
John Myers, the general manager of Australasian Correctional Management, which also runs the Fulham prison at Sale, says the allegation about cavity searches is wrong.
"Searching is an important aspect of any prison operation."
"It stops the introduction of illegal substances, drugs, weapons and things like that, so it's important to keep that stuff out of the prison."
" We just don't do those sorts of cavity searches. Its just not on," Mr Myers said.
A spokesman for Corrections Minister, Andre Haermeyer, says no formal complaint has been made to the department about illegal searches.
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010501/wl/venezuela_prison_dc_1.html
Tuesday May 1 5:05 PM ET
Venezuelan Prison Battle Kills Six, Injures Eight
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - Six Venezuelan prisoners were killed and eight were injured on Tuesday in a clash between rival gangs of armed inmates at one of the country's most notorious prisons, a senior security officer said.
National Guard Gen. Rafael Dubron told a local television station that units of the Guard entered El Tocuyito prison, southwest of Caracas, to halt the fighting and restore order.
``The situation is now completely under control,'' he said.
Earlier, Globovision television had reported a fierce gunbattle at the prison, which broke out after a gang of inmates from one section stormed a wing controlled by a rival group.
Dubron did not give details of what weapons the prisoners used but he said a homemade grenade or bomb had exploded during the fighting at El Tocuyito, which has a reputation for being one of the most violent of Venezuela's 30 prisons.
Deaths and injuries, often the result of clashes between feuding gangs, are an almost daily occurrence among the 16,300 convicts in this oil-rich South American nation.
Pistols, knives and other weapons, drugs, and even mobile phones are frequently smuggled into Venezuela's prisons by visitors, officials say. Two prisoners were killed on Friday in separate fights in the Yare facility, west of Caracas.
President Hugo Chavez's government has announced a plan to modernize prisons and is studying the possibility of allowing foreign private companies to build and run new ones.