Exile to the Desert: 3 more years of CCA abuse.

Shame on the state of Hawaii for continuing this contract after all the abuses (including torture and the sexual assault of a prisoner by a guard) that have occurred in Saguaro Correctional Center in the prison town of Eloy under CCA's watch. The people of the Islands should oppose this vociferously...your prisoners are just in for more abuse at the hands of Arizonans - especially your Indigenous. In fact, following this news article is a link to a decent piece by a friend of mine, Frank Smith from Private Corrections Institute, who's an expert on the private prison industry. He did some extensive research into the experience of Native Americans in private prisons - it's worth reading.

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State Signs New Three-Year Arizona Prison Deal

Hawaii Reporter

June 23, 2011

BY JIM DOOLEY – The state has signed a new, three-year contract with Corrections Corporation of America to house up to 1,900 prison inmates at private prisons in Arizona.

The price carries a one per cent increase over the current contract with CCA, which expires at the end of the month. The Department of Public Safety will pay CCA $63.85 per inmate per day. The old rate was $63.22.

CCA is believed to have submitted the sole bid for the contract.

The new deal, which carries two possible one-year contract extensions, was signed as Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s administration is making plans to end the longstanding policy of imprisoning Hawaii inmates in out-of-state facilities.

Public Safety officials are drawing up a plan for the return of out-of-state prisoners, but its completion is sometime in the future and will depend on construction of new correctional facilities here and development of new community-based programs for men and women now locked behind bars.

The Hawaii State Auditor said in a report issued late last year the total cost of the private prison program more than tripled since 2001, from just under $20 million to more than $60 million.

The per-day charges under the new contract would total some $44.3 million, although there are millions the state must pay in associated costs which the contract with CCA doesn’t cover.

The actual number of Hawaii inmates now held at CCA’s Saguaro Correctional Facility in Eloy, Arizona is now believed to have dropped under 1,800 as the state has stepped up efforts to bring certain categories of prisoners home.

Some 60 Hawaii inmates are also being held at CCA’s Red Rock Correctional Facility, next door to the Saguaro complex.

--------------------------Native Americans in Private Prisons------------------

Native Americans in Private Prisons.

Arizona Prison Watch
Friday, December 3, 2010

The following is the intro to a piece written by my friend Frank Smith, an expert on private prisons with the Private Corrections Working Group (where I dig up all those rap sheets on prison profiteers). Here's the testimony he gave to the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons several years back - which makes some good points still relevant to the violence and abuse of prisoners at CCA's Idaho Correctional Center, among other places.

Follow the link for the full text of the article, which I found posted to a great website on Lenape (Delaware Indian) culture and issues. The article was originally published as a chapter in the book "Capitalist Punishment: Prison Privatization and Human Rights" (Elizabeth Alexander, et al), a worthwhile text for any library on crime and punishment.

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Incarceration of Native Americans and Private Prisons
By Frank Smith

Introduction

There are currently slightly over two million inmates in local, state and federal jails and prisons. Of these, some 1.6 percent are Native Americans and Hawaiian Natives; in Federal institutions, Native Americans constitute 2 percent of the population, since the U.S. government is involved in criminal justice enforcement on reservations. Because approximately 6 percent of all U.S. inmates are held in private prisons, the total number of Native Americans in these for-profit prisons is comparatively rather small. For that reason, this article presents a picture of the conditions in which Native Americans are held given that limited experience.

Historical Perspective

In order to achieve an informed understanding of the current situation with regard to Native Americans in prison, it is necessary to place it within a larger historical and sociological context. While most residents of the US have the notion their country was founded on the principles of justice and freedom, closer examination reveals that perception is not accurate, particularly in the case of Native Americans.1

The more progressive of our founding fathers whom we remember so fondly as protectors of these ideals include Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson. Paine consistently referred to Indians as "savages", and used them as a negative comparative stereotype. Jefferson considered his contemporary Indians to be hindrances to colonial progress. The US only granted Natives citizenship in 1924, five years after women and 59 years after Black males were allowed to vote.

African Americans have undoubtedly been pervasively discriminated against in US history--their dehumanization was even embodied in the Constitution. Schoolchildren learn of the more egregious Supreme Court-approved violations of the rights of Blacks such as the Dred Scott decision or Plessy v. Feurgeson,2 and that the Civil War was fought in part over slavery.

They may have read the Emancipation Proclamation and even the Thirteenth to Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. The sordid history in America of slave owning, in the north and south, of lynching, of Jim Crow, is discussed in most schools. The role of such historic figures as Frederick Douglas or Sojourner Truth is widely recognized. Martin Luther King Jr., is certainly better known than many mediocre presidents. Selma, Alabama, and Little Rock, Arkansas are familiar mileposts, as is Brown v. Board of Education. Students may even understand the meaning of racial profiling, of the immensedisparity between sentencing for crack cocaine, more prevalent in inner-city neighborhoods, and powdered cocaine, more favored by wealthier uburbanites.

They may possibly be aware that a Black adolescent has perhaps a 50 times greater chance of being placed in an adult penal institution than a white youth who has been charged with exactly the same crime,3 and that perhaps one of three young Black men has been subjected to some criminal sanction, such as probation, parole, jail or prison.

Yet how many Americans, young or old, fully understand that this same disenfranchisement; this same disproportionate treatment by the criminal justice system, has affected Native Americans since the Articles of Confederation were signed? How many realize that broken treaties have been the order of the day for over two hundred years? Do they know that the early settlement of this nation involved pushing indigenous peoples into ever smaller, less habitable reservations?

How many school children are taught the cruel facts behind the genocidal removal of the inhabitants of the post-Revolutionary Southeast? There is hardly a Native American tribe that does not have a history of broken treaties and persecution. What this long, troubled relationship between European Americans and Natives constitutes is deliberate disregard for and discrimination against Native culture. Theft of lands, exiles, dispossessions, and a prevailing condemnatory and paternalistic attitude provide the background for the problems of Native Americans in prisons, both public and private, today. It particularly pervades the conditions of confinement of Indians in private prisons...

(follow for the full text)

Taking prisoners: CCA and the outsourcing of Hawai'i.

From the weekly Criminal InJustice Kos blog at www.dailykos.com:

-----------------------------------

Out of State, Out of Mind
by Emmet

In 1976, Delbert Kaahanui Wakinekona was serving a life sentence in Hawaii State Prison, having been convicted in a Hawaii court. He was seen as a behavior problem in the prison. In a couple of botched hearings, prison officials decided that he was a troublemaker who had caused the "failure of certain programs" in the maximum control unit. Hawaii transferred him to Folsom Prison in California. He sued. The Supreme Court held, in 1983, that, first, a prisoner convicted of a felony has no constitutionally protected right to serve his sentence in any specific state (e.g. the one whose laws he violated). And Mr. Wakinekona had no right to have the Hawaii prison regulations applied, because they didn't really limit the State's discretion anyway.

What happened as a result?

• Criminal InJustice Kos's diary :: ::
• 
  

Well, because of Olim and similar cases, two things happened. First, states and the feds, which had been told in the past that they had to follow their own rules, realized that if they just made their prison policies and regulations good and vague, or better yet nonexistent, they wouldn't have courts looking over their shoulders. So they could put a prisoner in the hole indefinitely if they called the hole "administrative segregation" instead of "segregation" and said that the prisoner was there for "the security of the institution", instead of for "assault," e.g. smacking another prisoner over the head. Added bonus: they could do it even if said prisoner didn't smack another prisoner on the head. Extra added bonus, and the subject of this diary: they could even transfer the troublemaker out of state and never have to see him or her again, if they paid enough.

I saw this policy illustrated in 1985 in the United States Penitentiary at Marion, Illinois, when I watched a four year old boy sobbing and pounding at the glass that separated him from his father. Prisoners held out of state don't have the right to conditions like those in their own states. They're subject to the rules of the state/company to which they're sent. Federal prisoners at Marion didn't get contact visits, and neither did the state prisoners held there, who were one third of the population at that time. A couple years later I represented another prisoner transferred out of state and away from his family. They couldn't afford to go visit him at all. His six year old son told his mother, "I'm going to be really, really bad, so they'll send me to be with Daddy." Good times.

At first, involuntary out of state transfers were used for people like Delbert Wakinekona, "bad guys" who were disliked for one reason or another by prison authorities. Assaultive people and gang leaders were transferred, and so were writ writers and journalists and activists and political prisoners. Authorities got another state, or the Feds, to accept their bad guys, sometimes for money, sometimes in return for accepting the other state's bad guys. So a prisoner associated with a particular prison gang, or known as a "political" or as a gay rights activist, might be plucked out and sent alone to a prison where a large group of prisoners were hostile to his gang or his beliefs. And no one at the prison could vouch for him, because no one knew him personally. Sometimes he survived. Sometimes he didn't.

But sheer dislike is no longer the main reason for involuntary transfers. There was profit to be made. Corrections Corporation of America was founded in 1983, two months before the Olim decision. It opened the first real prison for profit seven years later. But it has never been about housing "bad guys." When possible, it has gone for the easy money, and prison overcrowding (brought on in large part by the War on Drugs and three strikes laws) offered a great opportunity. Nowadays, a prisoner is more likely to be transferred if he has GOODbehavior in prison. No escape attempts, good health, plus a long sentence yet to serve are other factors that make a prisoner, literally, marketable, and may put him or her on the chain to Arizona or Minnesota or any other of the 19 states and DC where CCA has facilities.

Five years ago, the National Institute for Corrections reported that there were then about 5,000 prisoners who had been transferred out of state, half to private prisons, the other half to the federal or other state systems. Almost all those transferred to private prisons were sent there because of overcrowding. Most sent to other state systems were sent for "security" reasons. 26 states had people serving their time in other jurisdictions (but remember that some may have been voluntary transfers -- notorious defendants or convicted police or prison guards, moved for their safety).

That number has probably quadrupled or quintupled since then. California alone has more than 10,000 prisoners out of state, almost all because of overcrowding. It's getting ready to send more. In November, 2010, California entered into no-bid contracts with CCA and another company to place 5800 prisoners out of state over the next two years. Was incoming Governor Jerry Brown consulted? Not clear.
Pennsylvania shipped over 2000 prisoners to other state (not private) prisons because of overcrowding.

What will stop this banishment practice, apart from a complete rethinking and reorganization of our society?

Not the courts. At least, not directly.

(Lawyerly interlude: An argument I really like, that transfer is "banishment," forbidden by some state constitutions, has been made without success with one exception that I know of: West Virgina, whose Supreme Court held that there is a state-created right to serve your sentence in-state.)

At this point there's a lot of money invested in prisons for profit and consequently in continuing prison overcrowding. It's been my experience (YMMV) that at least since the Warren court, courts don't respond to big injustices which require big reordering of financial interests until public opinion --or overriding financial considerations -- move in favor of change.

Recognizing the importance of economic considerations, enterprising prisoners and their lawyers have done their best to inflict death by a thousand cuts. They look at the fast-diminishing groups of rights they retain by constitution or statute. One is access to the courts. Another is the right to parole consideration (if their state has parole). So they demand access to their state's laws. You'd think it would be easy for a prison system to provide this, but it's not. Or they demand access to unmonitored phone lines to call their attorney. That can almost bring some private facilities to a complete halt. They demand in-person meetings with their parole board, demand that their records be transmitted to the board, demand that they have the progress meetings with prison officials that their state's parole laws mandate. And if a prisoner learns that he may be transferred because of overcrowding, he or she can always commit an infraction. There's a cost/benefit analysis there, and you have to choose your infraction carefully, so as not to screw up access to visits.

Current budget constraints may put the squeeze on private prisons too. In 2010, Kentucky pulled its prisoners out of a CCA facility IN KENTUCKY because some genius figured out that it was too expensive. There'd been over 500 Kentucky prisoners there at one time or another. Now the Ky CCA facility only has Vermont prisoners, sent to relieve overcrowding.

Many states have transferred prisoners out of state in order to relieve overcrowding and have resisted calls to release prisoners early, even people convicted of minor crimes. But when state budgets have to be cut past the point of pain, some states are going to realize that early release is a lot less expensive than paying a huge CCA bill every month. The more people talk about this, and write to their elected officials, and visit their elected officials, the more likely it is to happen. Like economic considerations, public opinion doesn't change overnight, but it does change and it can be nudged. For example, pressure from family members, especially in smaller states, can be effective if it's sustained.

And after the deaths and mistreatment of several Hawaiian prisoners in CCA mainland prisons, Hawaiian officials are taking another look. Incoming Governor Neil Abercrombie wants to bring Hawaain out of state prisoners home. Speaking about out-of-state transfer on December 16, 2010: "It costs money. It costs lives. It costs communities," he said. "It destroys families. It is dysfunctional all the way around -- socially, economically, politically and morally."

The next day, the former Hawaii Attorney General, Micheal Lilly, who argued Olim for the state, wrote a letter to the editor of the Hawaiian Star-Advertiser. He applauded newly elected Governor Neil Abercrombie's proposal of bringing almost all Hawaiian prisoners home. He excepted only the very worst. I bet that if he were asked, he'd even concede that Delbert Wakinekona could come home. Over the years, Delbert has gotten a lot older. Now he's housed in CCA. If Red Rock Correctional Facility in Arizona can hold him, the Hawaaian prison system probably can, too.

(Second lawyerly interlude: Mr. Wakinekona has had the same lawyer who argued his case in the Supreme Court for all these years. He's trying to get his client's sentence commuted.)

As far as I could tell, in the 34 years since he was transferred, Delbert Kaahanui Wakinekona has never gone home again.

Hawai'i Prison Watch: CCA Guards Abusing Saguaro Prisoners

The AP story distributed and publised by several news outlets in AZ last night on the abuse of prisoners at CCA's Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy didn't even touch on what really happened there. I fidn it offensive that they refer to abused prisoners as "cons", too. This is the best coverage I've found of it so far, and comes right out of Hawai'i - thank you Denby Fawcett and KITV. Go to the link for the article to get the video, too.

I'm really outraged to hear the details of this abuse at Saguaro, but not at all surprised, sadly. The uncommon thing is that it's no longer invisible to the rest of us. Those prisoners have guts for coming forward; they put themselves on the line more than most of us can imagine. Sounds like they were between a rock and hard place as it was, though. Blessings to each and every one of them - they will make a difference for all.

Mahalo nui, guys.

To the families and supporters of Hawai'i prisoners here, PLEASE contact me so we can coordinate how best to support these guys. We can help you put together a Hawai'i Prison Watch site to stay on top of this and hold Abercrombie to his promise to bring them home, but we can't do it without you.

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18 Hawaii Inmates At Mainland Prison Sue State

Inmates Say Arizona Guards Beat, Threaten To Kill Them

Denby Fawcett, KITV 4 News Reporter

HONOLULU -- Eighteen Hawaii inmates have sued the state of Hawaii and the Corrections Corporation of America.The inmates claimed they were stripped, beaten and kicked by guards in Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona.

The prisoners said they were targeted after a guard was seriously hurt when he tried to break up a prison gang fight at Saguaro Correctional Center where they are incarcerated.

The suit was filed Monday by attorneys Michael Jay Green and John Rapp in Circuit Court in Honolulu.

The inmates are among 1,840 Hawaii prisoners serving sentences at Saguaro in Eloy, Ariz. The prison is run by the Corrections Corporation of America.

Saguaro was built to exclusively house Hawaii offenders because of prison overcrowding in Hawaii.

Attorney Rapp said the 18 inmates suing claim Saguaro guards have beaten and threatened them regularly after stripping them down to their underwear and hauling them out of their cells, one by one."The guards are banging their heads on tables, threatening them, beating them, kicking them, punching them," said Rapp.

In written statements the inmates have sent to Rapp, they say they have been forced to stand in the cold in their underwear, kicked while they are on the ground, and denied the opportunity to change their clothes for days. The inmates claim Saguaro guards are trying to coerce them to write statements about a prison gang fight July 26 in which a prison guard was severely beaten. They said the guards shove a pen into their hands and urge them to write about the incident.

"The inmates, of course, were reluctant to say things about other inmates. The last thing they want to do in prison is be a rat because that is pretty much a death sentence," said Rapp.

Rapp said Saguaro guards have also told the Hawaii inmates they will kill them or keep beating them until the prisoners commit suicide to stop the pain.

Rapp said the guards' threats to the inmates have continued up until the present.

Rapp said this week a Saguaro guard told an inmate if he and the others did not withdraw the lawsuit, "he would be cut into a million pieces. His mother would never see him again. So, the threats are continuing."

The suit asks for monetary damages and an injunction to stop the inmate beatings.

"We need to put a stop to the threats. We want to put a stop to the violence and to make sure it doesn't happen again," said Rapp.

Both the Hawaii's prisons department and the Corrections Corporation of America said Tuesday they will reserve comment until they have been served with the lawsuit and had time to review it.

Saguaro Prison is no stranger to violence. In June at Saguaro Clifford Medina, a 23-year-old Hawaii inmate was killed. His cellmate later admitted to Eloy, Arizona police he strangled Medina. And in February, Hawaii prisoner Bronson Nunuha died after he was stabbed multiple times in the neck. Two Hawaii inmates were charged with first degree murder and face a possible death sentence in that case.

Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie (D) promised in his campaign this year to bring Hawaii prisoners home from the mainland. In a written statement, Abercrombie said today: "The violence involving Hawaii inmates at Saguaro Correctional Facility underscores why we need to stop sending prisoners out of state. We are facing many challenges in the state and we need to work together to find solutions that include bringing our inmates home."

Abercrombie said he is committed to building more prisons in Hawaii that are safe and set high standards for corrections staff.

CCA prison murders: Another Hawaiian faces capital punishment

Hey Director Frank - you seem to think that murder is just a given in prison, since CCA doesn't need to change anything. That's kind of disturbing. As for your assessment of the relationship between the murderer and his victim: I'd call choking someone to death a good indication of "bad blood".

Since you seem to lack any ideas, here's a procedural change I can think of that needs to be made at all the prisons: stop putting the folks in for fraud and drug-related crime in cells and yards with the real bad guys (murderers, gang members, etc.). How about increasing staffing and surveillance, too? We just pack people into these prisons to warehouse them now, putting two and three into cells designed for one, and stuffing hundreds into huge gyms converted into dorm rooms, too. There can't possibly be adequate supervision or protection for those guys. They just keep getting killed that way.

Better yet, if you care enough about their lives to kill the people who end them, then maybe you should find something else to do with your non-violent offenders than send them off to an expensive prison with the worst-of-the-worst thousands of miles from home. These prisoners families should be marching in the streets demanding that the rest be brought back home. Putting them on a tether and enrolling them in school would be cheaper and more effective towards rehabilitating them than what you're doing now.

Of course, Arizona won't even make sure our youth can succeed in school before they get criminalized, so I don't think we're about to entertain that one here. We're pretty invested in keeping a certain portion of our population uneducated enough to fill those low-wage jobs we just chased all our migrants out of...

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Third Hawaii inmate faces death penalty in Arizona

By Gregg K. Kakesako

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 04, 2010

Honolulu Star Observer

A third Hawaii inmate serving time in an Arizona prison faces the death penalty after allegedly killing a fellow inmate during an argument in June.

Mahina Uli Silva, 21, was indicted by a Pinal County grand jury yesterday for allegedly strangling his cellmate from Hawaii, Clifford Medina, 23, on June 8. Medina was found unresponsive in the cell he shared with Silva at Saguarao Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz.

Clayton Frank, director of the state Department of Public Safety, said his office was informed of the indictment yesterday.

Frank said Silva was sent to prison in 2006 after being convicted for burglary, theft and robbery. He is eligible for parole in October 2011.

Silva is the third inmate from Hawaii facing capital crime charges.

The other two are Miti Maugaotega Jr., 24, who is serving a life sentence for first-degree attempted murder for the June 2003 shooting of Punchbowl resident Eric Kawamoto; and Micah Kanahele, 29, who is serving two 20-year sentences for the October 2003 shooting deaths of Greg Morishima at his Aiea home and Guylan Nuuhiwa in a Pearl City parking lot a week later.

Maugaotega and Kanahele were indicted earlier this year for the stabbing death of fellow inmate Bronson Nunuha, 26, who died Feb. 18.

Frank said the two are expected to stand trial in Arizona this month.

The three are the first to face capital punishment for a crime committed in a private prison on the mainland since Hawaii started housing inmates out of state in 1995.

Hawaii, which abolished capital punishment in 1957, is one of 11 states and the District of Columbia that do not have the death penalty.

Maugaotega, Kanahele and Silva are among the 1,871 male Hawaii inmates at Saguaro, a 1,897-bed prison owned by Corrections Corp. of America.

Frank said an internal investigation into Medina's death by his staff hasn't turned up any major problems or procedures that need to be changed at the private prison.

He said that Medina and Silva are both from the Pahoa area on the Big Island.

"There is no indication of bad blood between the two," Frank said.

Hawaiian prisoners in lockdown at CCA prison in AZ

Hawaii Inmates In Lockdown At Arizona Prison
Prisoners Fight Over Xbox, Prison Employee Seriously Injured
Jodi Leong KITV4 News Reporter
July 30, 2010

HONOLULU -- An Arizona prison that is housing about 1,884 Hawaii inmates, remains in lockdown -- five days after a big brawl.

The Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Arizona, houses Hawaii inmates only. The state hired Corrections Corporation of America to house the inmates at the Arizona facility because of prison over crowding in Hawaii.

Public Safety director Clayton Frank said 30 inmates from the high security unit were involved in the scuffle over an Xbox owned by one inmate.

When prison staff members intervened to stop the brawl, Clayton said 13 inmates turned on the facility's gang intelligence officer and severely beat him. Public Safety’s mainland branch administrator, Shari Kimoto, said the prison employee suffered a broken nose, broken cheekbones and eye socket damage. He has since been released from the hospital.

Read more at http://www.kitv.com/news/24461434/detail.html

Hawaii: Gov Lingle vetoes CCA audit bill.

I still say that you don't need an audit anyway to determine that CCA is killing too many prisoners. Thank god they took the women out of the other CCA facility already, considering how they were being sexually assaulted.

It's time to bring these people home.

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Bill calling for audit of prison contract vetoed

By Associated Press

Posted: KPUA (Hilo, Hawaii)

Saturday, June 26th, 2010 3:16 AM HST

HONOLULU (AP) — Gov. Linda Lingle has vetoed legislation that called for an audit of a state contract with a private prison firm that houses Hawaii felons.

In a statement Friday, Lingle said HB 415 would be costly, duplicative and would force the state auditor to go provide a legal opinion and make a policy judgment outside the scope of a normal audit.

The state's contract with the Corrections Corp. of America has come under scrutiny lately in part because of the deaths of two Hawaii prisoners at the firm's Arizona facility.

Two female inmates from Hawaii serving time at the company's Kentucky prison are suing the company and Hawaii. One of the inmates claims she was raped by two guards.

Hawaii removed its female inmates from that facility last year.

Hawai’i: Legislature demands CCA audit

I'm sorry, but when your citizens are dying like this, why do you need a cost-benefit audit in order to decide whether or not to pull them out? Isn't negligence a violation of CCA's contract, anyway?

It seems like in the human analysis financial concerns are already over-emphasized by the legislature (and still they waste through incarceration of burglars); that's how Hawai'i got into the business of outsourcing their prisoners - the family members of their people - in the first place. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon to "save money" - now we are beginning to finally ask "at what cost?".

Hawai'i - take advantage of this moment in history to tear this system down and start over - when will you or your children ever get another chance? Don't let it pass you by.

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Lawmakers Want Governor To Sign Prisons Audit Bill

Say Needed Now After Two Prison Deaths

Denby Fawcett

KITV 4, Honolulu

POSTED: 5:55 pm HST June 22, 2010

UPDATED: 10:10 pm HST June 22, 2010

HONOLULU -- State lawmakers said Tuesday they are seriously considering a veto override if Gov. Linda Lingle (R) vetoes a bill calling for a cost-benefit audit of a privately run Arizona prison.

The state spends more than $60 million a year to send nearly 2,000 Hawaii inmates to Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., because of prison overcrowding in Hawaii.

Saguaro is run by the Corrections Corp. of America.

Two Hawaii inmates have died at Saguaro Prison in Arizona in less than four months.

Inmate Clifford Medina's cellmate admitted to Arizona police he strangled Medina June 8th.

Bronson Nunuha died Feb. 18 after multiple stab wounds to his neck. Two Hawaii inmates have been indicted in the case on first degree murder and gang related charges.

State Sen. Will Espero (D) said Tuesday, in light of the deaths at Saguaro, it's time for an audit.

"If the governor does veto this bill. I think it would be a big mistake," said Espero. "I think it would be unwise considering in the last several months there have been two murders at Saguaro plus the fact that we pay $61 million a year to CCA to keep our inmates in there."

The Corrections Corp. of America also runs Otter Creek Prison in Kentucky where after allegations of rape and inmate abuse, all Hawaii's female inmates were returned to Hawaii.

Lingle in her potential veto message said an audit of mainland prison operations is expensive and unnecessary.

But Espero said that's not so.

"The governor said it would be too expensive, but in the bill we do not have an appropriation so the auditor's office would be using funds it already has," said Espero.

State Auditor Marion Higa said she is operating under the assumption Lingle will let the audit bill become law.

Higa said next week two analysts from her office will spend the week at Saguaro working beside prisons officials from Hawaii as they do their quarterly quality control inspection. Higa said that will help her analysts begin planning for the audit Hawaii lawmakers requested.

Higa said she expects the prisons audit will be inexpensive because she will use in-house staff and money that has already been appropriated for her department.

Espero said that if the governor vetoes the prisons audit bill, he will recommend a veto override.

House Public Safety Chairwoman Faye Hanohano was a prison guard at Hawaii's Kulani Prison for 25 years. Hanohano said she will also recommend an override if the governor vetoes the prisons audit bill.

Hanohano said more needs to be known to determine if Hawaii taxpayers are getting their money's worth by sending prisoners to the mainland instead of incarcerating them in Hawaii.

"There is a lot of missing data that needs to be brought out and hopefully an audit will flush it out," said Hanohano.

The Hawaii Prisons Department opposes the audit bill as it is written, it would too expensive and its scope is too broad.

"It is unclear exactly what they are asking to audit," said Hawaii Public Safety Director Clayton Frank.

Frank said the bill calls for the auditor to look not only at the Arizona prison but also the closure of Kulani Prison on Hawaii island, and the state's practice of paying for Hawaii inmates to be housed at the Federal Detention Center at Honolulu International Airport.

Daniel Gluck, an attorney with ACLU Hawaii said an audit of CCA's services at Saguaro Correctional Center could end up saving Hawaii money as it has for other states who have reviewed their own contracts with CCA.

Gluck said after Idaho audited CCA earlier this year, it began withholding $2,600 a day from CCA for its denial of proper health services to Idaho inmates.

" Hawaii allowing a $61 million no-bid contract to go on for 15 years with no independent oversight is an unsound financial practice for the state," said Gluck. "We are hoping that the governor will consider these numbers and allow the audit to become law."

Honolulu to Eloy: Medina's family seeking answers.

From our friends in Honolulu at KITV 4 ... no surprise here from CCA. They don't need to deal with grieving families -what profit is there to be extracted from a man once he's dead, except by an undertaker? They passed off his belongings as carelessly as they are letting these guys get slaughtered.

I have such a hard time believing that some communities actually want these private prisons in their backyards. They dehumanize staff as much as they do the prisoners. That's got to have an effect on the ethos of a town...

What do the people of Eloy say about all this anyway? They welcomed CCA with dollar signs in their own eyes: Are they ethical business men and women willing to take responsibility for the consequences of their investment? Do they have a human rights committee overseeing prisons in their town, holding these people accountable? Or do they just rant when articles come out about these things, then quietly wash their hands of the blood spilled in their presence?

What do the people of Eloy have to say to the people of Hawaii and - more pointedly - to this man's family? Why has your prison not been able to keep those in its custody and care safe from harm?

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Hawaii Family Seeking Answers About Inmate's Death

Snubbed By Arizona Prisons Officials

Denby Fawcett KITV 4 News Reporter

POSTED: 11:44 pm HST June 18, 2010

UPDATED: 3:15 pm HST June 19, 2010

KITV.com

HONOLULU -- Clifford Medina, 23, died in his prison cell at Saguaro Correctional Center in Eloy, Ariz., June 8.

Eloy police said Medina's cellmate, 21 year-old, Mahinauli Silva admitted to strangling Medina.

Loke Medeiros, Clifford Medina's aunt, and his sister, Roseanna Medeiros, flew to Arizona from their Puna, Hawaii, home Wednesday, hoping to find out what happened. They said felt they needed to travel to Arizona after receiving no information from Hawaii prisons officials.Clifford Medina was among 1900 Hawaii inmates in Saguaro. Hawaii has been sending inmates to the privately run Arizona prison since 2007 to ease prison overcrowding here.

Roseanna Medina said she and her aunt went to Saguaro Correctional Center Friday to ask for an appointment with prison warden Todd Thomas. They were told the warden was too busy to see them. Then, they said another official brought them a box of Clifford Medina's personal belongings, asked them to sign for it, and then turned on his heels without saying another word to them.

"It was very disappointing," said Roseanna Medeiros. "There are so many questions we hoped to have answered, and so much we wanted to find out that only the prison staff could have told us."

"They were just rude," said Loke Medeiros. "I couldn't believe they wouldn't talk to us.Medina was serving time for burglary, theft, jumping bail and assaulting a law enforcement officer."Even though he was in prison, he should have been safe. It's very sad," said Roseanna Medeiros.

A team of investigators from Hawaii has been at Arizona prison since Tuesday to investigate Medina's death.

Medina is the second Hawaii inmate to be killed at Saguaro Correctional Center in less than four months. Bronson Nunuha of Maui died of multiple stab wounds in the neck February 18. Two Hawaii inmates, Miti Maugaotega and Micah Kanahele, were indicted May 20 on first degree- murder and gang related charges in Nunuha's killing. A spokesman with the Pinal County attorney's office prosecuting the Nunuha case said the prosecutor is reviewing a possible death penalty sentence if the two defendants are convicted.

Clifford Medina's aunt and sister said they will remain in Arizona next week still hoping to get a better sense of why he died, and why more was not done to protect him and to supervise the inmate police say killed him.

They said they don't want it to happen to anyone else.

CCA, Nunuha, and the right to life.

Hawaii inmates complain about safety in Arizona prison

Posted: Jun 17, 2010 1:07 AM EDT

Hawaii News Now

By Tim Sakahara - bio | email

Two Hawaii inmates were murdered in the last four months at a prison in Arizona and tonight we're hearing more complaints about safety.

Miti Maugaotega and Micah Kanahele were indicted on first degree murder charges. They're accused of stabbing fellow Hawaii inmate Bronson Nunuha several times in February. Investigators believe it was a gang murder. Nunuha was set to be released in October.

Both suspects were already serving lengthy prison terms. Kanahele was serving 25 years for shooting and killing a man in an Aiea carport, then killing another man in the parking lot of the Longs Drugs in Pearl City.

Maugaotega was described as a "walking crime wave" by a judge. He is serving a life sentence with the possibility of parole for shooting a man in the chest during a home invasion in Punchbowl. Maugaotega was 17 at the time and had a lengthy criminal record.

Arizona prosecutors should decide in the next few days if they will pursue the death penalty option, even though Hawaii does not have capital punishment.

Earlier this month a second Hawaii inmate was killed. Mahinauli Silva is accused of strangling his cell mate Clifford Medina.

Among the complaints from inmates is that there aren't enough guards and they are denied "comfort moves," meaning if cell mates have problems with each other they are not moved until there's an assault or worse.

Just today State Senator Will Espero received a letter from an inmate at Saguaro Correctional Facility in Arizona complaining about housing conditions and their safety.

"If you get this letter I guess it's an I told you so," Espero read from the letter. "Help before it gets worse and more people die or get hurt. There's a lot to this death that you don't know and may never know."

He's got a drawer full of these types of letters.

"Inmates are human beings too and have needs and must be dealt with properly or else if you treat them like animals they'll act like animals," said Espero.

It's not just letters. We spoke with an inmate by phone who wanted to remain anonymous for his safety.

"This facility (Saguaro) is greatly understaffed pursuant to the contract," he said. He also said he's worried about his safety, not necessarily from other inmates but from the prison staff.

Nearly 1,900 Hawaii inmates are incarcerated at Saguaro Prison in Arizona. The state says it pays Corrections Corporation of American $60 million a year to lock them up. That's about $43 million a year cheaper than keeping them here in Hawaii.

But some feel the savings isn't worth the cost. Meaning with a private company making money the public gets no accountability.

"I think the system was broken in the first place. The problem is we contract with a facility or a company that has no incentive to provide rehabilitative services. It's a for profit operation," said Myles Breiner, Attorney. "No one is saying let's coddle these people but you have to balance out. The reality is every single individual, the vast majority are going to return to Hawaii so we have every reason in the world to treat these people in a way where they can come back into the community and not be a risk and we're not doing that. We're closing our eyes. I want accountability."

"You know if they really want to complain about it don't do the crime," said Peter Carlisle, Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney.

Carlisle says it's prison. It's not supposed to be a cake walk and sending them to Arizona is the best option otherwise they'd kill each other in Hawaii.

"We've had deaths in all of our prison systems here in the State of Hawaii. We've had people killed in prison regularly, we've had people commit suicide, when you're dealing with an unstable and dangerous population like this it's not unusual for them to do the most horrendous, horrific and violent acts," said Carlisle.

Today Hawaii Department of Public Safety Director Clayton Frank said he's heard the complaints, but says the prison's process is appropriate and he has not seen anything that would raise a red flag.

He also says Saguaro is accredited by the American Correctional Association, which is difficult to get. None of Hawaii's prisons accredited.

Hawaii DPS to investigate AZ prison.

Wonder why they wouldn't be confident in AZ ADC or DPS investigating CCA ourselves?

--------------------

State to investigate killing of island inmate in Arizona
By Mary Vorsino
Star Advertiser

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST,
Jun 15, 2010

Amid growing scrutiny of the state's practice of shipping inmates to the mainland, a state Department of Public Safety team left for Arizona yesterday to investigate the killing of a 23-year-old Hawaii inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center.

Arizona authorities expect to charge a 21-year-old Hawaii inmate in connection with the killing at Saguaro, a private prison in Arizona where nearly 1,900 Hawaii inmates are housed.

BY THE NUMBERS
1,871 male inmates at Saguaro
1,897 beds at Saguaro
$61 million per year to house male inmates on mainland

Eloy, Ariz., police said Mahinauli Silva strangled his cellmate, Clifford Medina, while the prison was in lockdown on last Tuesday.

The killing is the second of a Hawaii inmate on the mainland this year and is prompting calls for new attention to the out-of-state prison population.

State Sen. Will Espero, chairman of the Senate Public Safety Committee, said the two inmate deaths raise serious questions about the state's policy of shipping out inmates and will undoubtedly raise the prominence of the discussion in the 2011 legislative session.

"Maybe this could give us a reason to pause," he said, adding that the Hawaii team in Arizona to investigate Medina's death needs to answer this question: "Is this prison unsafe, and are there some major security breaches?"

Meanwhile, Medina's family said they are not getting any details on the killing from the state Department of Public Safety and plan to travel to Arizona to look into the death themselves.

"It's so frustrating," said Loke Medeiros, Medina's aunt. "No one from Public Safety talks to us."
Medeiros said that Medina had cognitive disabilities and attention deficit disorder and had recently been placed in isolation. As a result, he could call his family only once a month.

"The day of his death was the day he was supposed to call home," said Medeiros, of Puna. "He had told us he was in what they call the hole."

DPS Director Clayton Frank said he had not gotten official word yesterday on Medina's cause of death and so could not comment on the case. But he did say the DPS team would be working with Eloy police and with prison officials to investigate what happened and evaluate security at the facility.

Some 1,871 male Hawaii inmates are at Saguaro, a 1,897-bed prison owned by Corrections Corp. of America. About 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in Arizona.

The state spends about $61 million a year to house male inmates on the mainland because there is not enough room for them at Hawaii prisons. Last year, allegations by female Hawaii inmates of widespread sexual abuse by guards and employees at a CCA facility in Kentucky prompted the state to pull all 168 of its female inmates from the prison and bring them back to the islands to serve their time.

Silva, the suspect in the killing last week, remains in custody at the Saguaro Correctional Center and is expected to be charged today or tomorrow, said Sgt. Michelle Tarango, of the Eloy Police Department.

Police did not provide information yesterday on a motive in the killing and could not say why the prison was in lockdown.

Tarango said Silva confessed in police custody to strangling his cellmate, then waiting a "short while" before pushing an emergency button to call for guards.

Medina was sent to Arizona about six months ago and was serving time for first-degree assault on a law enforcement officer, two counts of second-degree burglary, second-degree theft and bail jumping. He would have been eligible for parole in 2012.

Silva was serving time for burglary and theft.

Saguaro was also the site of the stabbing death of Bronson Nunuha on Feb. 18. Two Hawaii inmates -- Micah Kanahele and Miti Maugaotega Jr. have been indicted on first-degree murder charges in the case.

Nunuha was the first Hawaii inmate killed in a private prison on the mainland since the state started housing inmates out of state in 1995, though others have been seriously assaulted.

Officials have said Nunuha's death appeared to be gang-related. There are no indications Medina's death was linked to gangs.

Suspect arrested in CCA murder at Saguaro

Cellmate arrested in death of Hawaii inmate
By Mary Vorsino
Star Advertiser
POSTED: 10:54 a.m. HST, Jun 14, 2010

Arizona police are questioning a 21-year-old Hawaii inmate in the death of his cellmate, a 23-year-old Hawaii man, last week at the Saguaro Correction Center.

Mahinauli Silva is expected to be charged with second-degree murder.

Eloy, Ariz., police said Silva admitted to strangling his cellmate, Clifford Medina, in their cell last Tuesday when the prison was in lockdown.

Police had no immediate information on a motive in the killing.

Officials had earlier declined to confirm how Medina was killed. Medina was found unresponsive in his cell Tuesday morning.

An emergency medical services team tried unsuccessfully to revive him, according to a brief statement from the Corrections Corp. of America, which operates Saguaro.

Arrest to be made in CCA Eloy prisoner murder

Arrest expected in prison slaying

26-year-old Hawaii inmate was stabbed in Arizona cell

By Mary Vorsino

Honolulu Advertiser Staff Writer

Posted on: Thursday, February 25, 2010

Arizona police say they are close to making an arrest in the killing of a 26-year-old Hawai'i inmate at Saguaro Correctional Center, a private prison in Arizona where nearly 1,900 Hawai'i inmates are housed.

The prison remains in lockdown following the death Feb. 18.

Arizona police said Bronson Nunuha, who was incarcerated for three counts of second-degree burglary, died from multiple stab wounds. He was assaulted in his cell sometime before 9:30 a.m. Feb. 18, when prison staff found him. He was pronounced dead about 9:57 a.m.

Local police in Eloy, Ariz., where the prison is located, said yesterday they expect to make an arrest soon in connection with the killing, but did not release further details, citing the ongoing investigation.

A Hawai'i team from the Department of Public Safety is also investigating the death.

Clayton Frank, Public Safety Department director, said the team arrived Saturday and will likely remain in Arizona through the week. "There's still a lot of things that need to be untangled," Frank said.

He declined to say what the team had found so far.

The team could make security recommendations for the 1,897-bed prison, which is owned by Corrections Corporation of America. Some 1,871 male Hawai'i inmates are at Saguaro, and about 50 more are at a separate CCA prison in Arizona. The state spends about $61 million a year to house inmates on the Mainland because there's not enough space for them in Hawai'i facilities.

Nunuha had been behind bars for about four years.

He was scheduled to return to the Islands in a few months to prepare for his release Oct. 31.

Nunuha is the first Hawai'i inmate killed in a private prison on the Mainland since the state began shipping its inmates out of state 15 years ago. Officials have said his killing may have been gang-related.

Reach Mary Vorsino at mvorsino@honoluluadvertiser.com.