Feds Unaware of Prison Officials' Problems

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- The Justice Department did not know about problems in the tenures of four former state prison officials when it hired them to help set up Iraq's prison system, the department's inspector general said Friday.
But the information would not have changed the decision to send the men to Iraq, even if officials had been aware of civil lawsuits against them, Inspector General Glenn Fine said.

Fine said his review of the contractors' time in Iraq also "found no evidence to suggest that they played any role in the abuses" at the U.S.-run Abu Ghraib prison.

Fine's inquiry also identified weaknesses in the way background checks are performed, including 22 cases in which contractors were sent to Iraq without required background checks.
...
Each had lawsuits or other problems linked to their tenures in state government, Schumer said. One of the four, Terry Stewart, was sued by the Justice Department in 1997, when he ran Arizona's Corrections Department, over allegations that female inmates were repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and watched by corrections workers as they dressed, showered and used the bathroom.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-prison-abuse-contractors,0,1002025.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[meganmonkey]

1. This is absurd

It's like - "well, we didn't know that these people were likely incompetent, but even if we had, we would have hired them anyway."

Gee, wonder why almost EVERYTHING we are doing over there is SO FUCKED UP?!?!:mad:

[Roland99]

2. Bull-fucking-shit!!

And this pisses me off even more!!

But the information would not have changed the decision to send the men to Iraq, even if officials had been aware of civil lawsuits against them, Inspector General Glenn Fine said.

Jesus H. Christ do these people have ANY morals?!?!?



http://www.november.org/stayinfo/breaking2/DemocracyNow.html

MARK DONATELLI: There's been a public report released by the justice department that documents long-standing abuse. I must say that it was in existence before his company took over, but continued pretty much in the same manner it had before. Reckless disregard for serious medical and mental health needs of prisoners in some cases resulting in death, suicide, incredible neglect of mental health prisoners once again, and ironically, just a couple of weeks ago, the justice department team was back in town re-evaluating the prison while these revelations were coming out about McCotter having started this operation in Iraq. So, as Dan pointed out in his article, McCotter was no justice department. I don't want to fault the justice department people out here, because they're not-it's not the wing of justice department that was involved in setting up the Iraq operations. These are people in the civil rights division who were investigating the allegations of civil rights violations who had documented the involvement of McCotter's company here. But remember this is not New Mexico's first exposure to McCotter. He is no stranger. He had come here in the mid 1908's in the wake of our riot, and had acquired quite a reputation here even back then. It was surprising to many of us in Santa Fe that the county would consider doing business with McCotter's company, given the reputation he had in New Mexico from the mid 1980's that we knew he had problems in our jail. We knew things needed to be turned around. One would have thought that they would understand that McCotter's company would be the last place to turn to reform jail operations.

<...>

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Donna Brorby, who was lead counsel for a decade in a class action suit brought by prisoners in Texas, raising a broad range of constitutional issues related to prison conditions in Texas. Lane McCotter, director in Texas from 1985 to 1987. It's interesting, Senator Charles Schumer, the New York Senator, has written several letters to the Attorney General asking questions about Lane McCotter's appointment moving from Texas, Utah and New Mexico with his record, to set up the prison outside Baghdad, Abu Ghraib. One of his press releases, says that he revealed that Attorney General John Ashcroft had appointed an individual with a checkered past involving cases of prisoner mistreatment as one of the four advisers who oversaw Iraq's prison system. Schumer called on Ashcroft to explain why he appointed Lane McCotter, the former Director of Utah's Correction System who was forced out of that position after 97 cases of prisoner mistreatment, to then help oversee the Iraqi correction system. He further asked Ashcroft to answer a series of questions regarding the selection process for civilian advisers and contractors and the potential investigation of these individuals' roles in Iraq's prisons. Schumer said, "Why Attorney General Ashcroft would send someone with a checkered record to rebuild Iraq's corrections systems is beyond me. You just don't send someone about whom so many questions have been raised to handle such a sensitive task. It defies logic and reason, and it demands answers."

[Roland99]

3. Another thought-Is this the same Inspector General who redacted the Plame

report?

[saigon68]

4. female inmates were repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted

Sounds like Chuck Graner is in charge

[Rose Siding]

5. "· DOJ is now performing a Google search on all subcontractor candidates"

In Schumer's press release...

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2005/PR41494.DOJIraqPrison.022505.pf.html

Schumer said, “It is very disturbing that the Justice Department would select subcontractors with checkered pasts to bring ‘order’ back to Iraq’s prison system. The one silver lining in this awful incident is that the Justice Department is finally taking real steps to insure that the guards and administrators we give to Iraq’s prison system will help them, not make things worse.”

“It was bad enough that we already knew three of these guards previously engaged in serious misconduct, but this IG report today shows that many others were similarly hired. The bottom line is that we should not be exporting our dirty laundry as we are trying so hard to clean up Iraq’s problems. If prison guards are not qualified to work U.S. prisons because of previously poor behavior or lack of proper clearances, they should not be considered good enough by our Justice Department for jobs in Iraq’s prisons,” Schumer stated.
...
Based on the request made by Sen. Schumer, the Justice Department has already made several improvements to the clearance and hiring process. Here are some of the highlights:

· As part of the background check on candidates, Justice uses a standardized memo to determine whether the candidate should receive clearance. As part of this review, Justice discovered that the memo is not in line with the Department’s own policy regarding risk assessment established in 2002. Justice has since created a new memo that complies with that policy.
· Created a full time position to oversee the subcontractor clearance process. Hired someone with military and corrections experience on Feb. 7, 2005.
...
· DOJ is now performing a Google search on all subcontractor candidates.

Some of the recommendation to "improve the hiring process"

1. Develop and implement a training program for the clearance process.
2. Require annual briefings on the clearance process to relevant staff.
3. Develop and distribute periodic reports on security packet processing to the managers.
6. Require new contractor to develop a web site with requirements for new subcontractor applicants.
8. Track and review Google, LexisNexis, PACER and Accruint searches on candidates, and perform a cost benefit analysis of performing those searches. Take a closer look at whether red flags on a candidate’s background should preclude them from getting certain positions.

[paineinthearse]

6. See Schumer press release from 2/25

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3179509