Posted on: Friday, March 25, 2005
Five felons worked at Brush prison
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
Five employees at a privately run Colorado prison where Hawai'i women inmates are being held had felony convictions, prompting Colorado authorities to review hiring records at all such prisons around the state.
Alison Morgan, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections, said checks of 60 to 70 employees at the Brush Correctional Facility that were completed about two weeks ago revealed eight had "questionable" backgrounds, including the five with felony convictions.
The other three had arrest histories that Morgan described as "patterns of behavior" that merited further investigation. All but one of the eight has resigned from the prison or been fired, and Colorado Department of Corrections officials are still looking into the background of the eighth worker, Morgan said.
None of the eight is among the five other correctional workers at Brush accused of sexual misconduct with inmates or with helping inmates smuggle cigarettes into the prison.
Yesterday, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Community Alliance on Prisons issued a statement calling on Hawai'i authorities to launch an independent investigation into the problems at Brush, which is operated by GRW Corp.
A joint press release by the two groups alleged that inmates charged in connection with the cigarette smuggling have not been allowed to speak with lawyers to prepare their defense. The Hawai'i inmates allegedly involved in smuggling are reportedly being treated more harshly than inmates from other states who were accused of the same things, the press statement said.
"We are very concerned about the level of safety in the facility for the inmates being held there, and in particular for the Hawai'i inmates," the press statement said. "The disparities in treatment and retaliation being brought to our attention must be immediately and thoroughly addressed."
Interim Public Safety Director Rick Bissen was unavailable for comment yesterday, but he said Wednesday the state will not conduct its own investigation into the allegations at Brush. Bissen said he is satisfied with the response by the Colorado Department of Corrections and by GRW Corp.
Bissen said Wednesday the state's main focus is the safety of inmates, but pointed out Colorado prosecutors have filed charges against the people accused in the sexual misconduct and cigarette smuggling cases.
Two former corrections officers at Brush have been charged with sexual misconduct with inmates, and prison officials said a prison counselor is also under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct. The former warden at the prison, Rick Soares, also was charged as an accessory in one of the sexual misconduct cases.
Two Hawai'i inmates are among the eight prisoners who accused the corrections staff of sexual misconduct. The Hawai'i inmates alleged they were coerced by former corrections officer Russell E. Rollison, 31, into performing a sex act. Rollison has been charged with two counts of sexual misconduct, and the two inmates have since been returned to the Women's Community Correctional Center in Kailua.
Hawai'i still has about 80 inmates at the prison, and Hawai'i prison officials have said there are no plans to move them.
Morgan said Brush prison officials attempted to conduct background checks on their employees, but most of the employees' fingerprints were smudged and were rejected by the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, which was supposed to run the background checks.
Prison officials then failed to follow up, she said. Morgan said new procedures have since been put into place to ensure the background checks are completed.
Morgan declined to say what crimes the five felons were convicted of because she is not allowed to release the results of a state background check.
"The breakdown at GRW was a breakdown in management, in leadership, and they are working very hard to rectify that now," she said.
The Colorado Department of Corrections has since launched a review of the four other private prisons in Colorado to be sure those prisons have completed background checks, she said. Those four are all men's prisons owned by the Corrections Corporation of America.
Kat Brady, coordinator with the Community Alliance on Prisons, called the latest reports from Brush shocking and said they are evidence Hawai'i officials don't really know how the Mainland prisons are being run.
"I think it's outrageous, and the thing that really concerns me is the state sends our people to places where they've done no due diligence," she said. "They just seem to say, 'Well, it's cheap, so let's turn our inmates over to the lowest bidder.' "
The Hawai'i inmates who alleged they were sexually assaulted at Brush are suing the prison and the state, and Brady said the Hawai'i inmates believe they were "retaliated against" because of the suit, according to the press release by the ACLU and the alliance.
Gil Walker, president of GRW Corp., was unavailable for comment Wednesday and yesterday.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
