Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI) Contact: (414) 224-8280 Website: http://www.jsonline.com/ Copyright: 1998, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Author: Richard P. Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff Pubdate: Sun, 29 Nov 1998 PRISON TOUR DOESN'T SWAY LAWMAKERS 4 of 5 who visit private Tennessee site still favor shipping out inmates Whiteville, Tenn. -- Four of the five Wisconsin legislators who toured a private prison where Wisconsin inmates had been abused said Saturday they saw no reason to stop sending inmates to Corrections Corp. of America prisons here or in Oklahoma. The four Republicans -- and one Democrat, who disagreed with them -spoke after a day of visiting the company's facilities and meeting with company officials in the wake of complaints of multiple cases of abuse of Wisconsin inmates. The abuse came in the days after a brutal attack by inmates on a rookie prison guard. On Wednesday, the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee is scheduled to act on a Department of Corrections request to send more inmates out of state, including 300 to the Corrections Corp. of America prison in Sayre, Okla. Though the visit to Tennessee didn't change any minds, it did reveal new details of the chain of events that led to the abuse complaints. The Wisconsin lawmakers learned that an Aug. 5 incident in the prison cafeteria -- an officer laying a hand on an inmate's shoulder, and other inmates taking offense -- apparently triggered the attack on the officer and subsequent abuse of inmates. Tennessee authorities are investigating the assault on the guard and may charge nine Wisconsin inmates with attempted murder. The FBI is looking into violations of the inmates' civil rights. When Wisconsin prison officials found evidence of abuse during an October visit to the prison and complained of a coverup, the company fired eight employees, including the prison's security chief. After visiting the company's facilities Friday, Rep. Scott Walker (R-Wauwatosa), corrections committee chairman, said he found no pattern of abuse, only the usual inmate complaints, which he described as minor. And Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah), a finance committee member, said of the company, "It's the best option for the state." Wisconsin has an inmate population of 17,634 but has bunks for 13,400 convicts in its prison system. But Rep. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee), the lone Democrat on the trip, said Wisconsin should stop sending inmates out of state at least until the state and federal investigations at Whiteville are complete. "I'm not convinced that we should continue transfers at this time," said Coggs, who also is a finance committee member. The delegation, which also included Rep. Robert Goetsch (R-Juneau), criminal justice committee chairman, and Assembly Majority Leader Steven Foti (R-Oconomowoc), toured the prison Friday and, among other things, learned the following: Thomas Locke, special agent in charge of the FBI's Memphis Division, said the FBI should complete its investigation in December. Agent James Adams of Jackson said the sole focus was inmate allegations of abuse and possible criminal violations of their civil rights by company employees. Once the FBI submits its report, Locke said, the U.S. Department of Justice must decide on further action. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has been investigating the near-fatal assault on the guard. Warden Patrick Whalen told lawmakers that apparently the Tennessee bureau was awaiting only lab results before deciding on criminal charges. Jerry Reeves, the guard who suffered severe head injuries in the Aug. 5 assault, was home recovering after a second stay in the hospital. Whalen said Reeves recently underwent surgery to relieve swelling of the brain and more surgery appeared necessary. When the assault occurred, the prison had 556 Wisconsin inmates. On Friday, it held 1,024 from Wisconsin. The state plans to send more until the prison reaches its capacity of 1,200. Under its contract with the company, Wisconsin will pay $18.4 million a year to imprison 1,200 inmates in Whiteville. Foti and other lawmakers had plans to visit Whiteville since the state started doing business with the company in January. The August incidents provided added reason for the trip. Foti had planned a surprise visit, but company officials learned the lawmakers were coming. When the delegation arrived, two guards were lowering the Tennessee state flag and preparing to hoist Wisconsin's flag. Although it was the day after Thanksgiving, corporate officials joined Whalen and virtually his entire staff to welcome the legislators to the new maximum security prison, a stark, two-story concrete fortress with narrow windows, surrounded by two fences at least 20 feet high and topped with razor wire. While company officials were reluctant to discuss the investigations, it apparently was an incident in the cafeteria that led to the Aug. 5 assault on Reeves and events that followed. Assistant Warden Mike Tweedy said an officer gave an inmate an order, and when the order was ignored, the officer put his hand on the inmate's shoulder. He said other prisoners apparently saw the guard's move as a sign of disrespect. "There was a number of inmates that jumped up," Tweedy said. "One of the supervisors just yelled, 'Sit down!' And they all just slowly sat back down." Lawmakers were told later that the officer apparently was the security chief, and that members of several gangs planned to attack him that day in the recreation area, but turned on Reeves when they couldn't get the security chief. Reeves, who had been on the job only three weeks, was attacked with a bar from a weight machine in an equipment room in the prison gym. Three weight machines that inmates used in the rec yard are now gone. So is the security chief, who was among workers the company dismissed when Wisconsin officials found evidence of inmate abuse, complained of a coverup and alerted the FBI. Among the inmates alleging abuse at Whiteville was Bernell Selders Jr., who recently was transferred to the segregation unit of another company prison, known as the Hardeman prison, just down the road. During a stop at the Hardeman prison, Coggs and Walker listened as Selders explained what happened to him on Aug. 11. He said that twice that day, he and cellmate Louis Boyd, while in handcuffs, were beaten, sprayed with mace and shocked with a stun gun and stun shield by a members of a tactical squad. "They had the shield on me, stunning me, saying, 'You know who did it, and you're going to tell us who did it,' " he said. "I'm crying; I'm in pain." Selders said he had nothing to do with the assault, and he struggled in describing what else he said happened to him. Selders said that stripped to his shorts, he was forced to kneel on the floor. He said that he was bent forward over his bunk and restrained in handcuffs when a guard sexually assaulted him with a shampoo bottle, shocked him with a stun gun and hit him in the head. Coggs said he was moved by the inmate's account, which he said reflected poorly on the new facility and all the programs that company officials sought to promote. "If you have inhumane practices going on, then it's like a medieval dungeon," Coggs said. - --- Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson