Update: American Police Force Pulls out of Hardin, MT Deal

[PatriotOne]

kulr8.com
By Sarah Gravlee
Story Published: Oct 9, 2009 at 2:49 PM MDT

http://www.kulr8.com/news/local/63886567.html

BILLINGS - A shocking revelation in the ongoing story with American Police Force, as officials with APF pull out of contract negotiations with Two Rivers Authority.
"I'm here today to announce to you that APF is pulling out of negotiations to run the Hardin detention facility," Spokeswoman Becky Shay said in a press conference Friday.

She said it was a company decision to pull out. Adding that the decision comes after the company learned it may have to pour as much as $1million into the 2-year-old facility.

"There's analog phones in there," Shay said. "This is 2009. There are security cameras outside that have gone through Montana winters and summers without any maintenance."

KULR-8 news confirmed this week that several private investors have put money into APF venture in Hardin. She said she's not sure what the company will do with that money.

"Their investment is still safe," she said. "They invested in APF, not Two Rivers detention center."

Shay said Friday's announcement was actually a relief. "I'm very pleased to make this announcement because TRA deserves a less controversial partner," she said.

The controversy surrounding APF lead Montana's Attorney General to request more information. He's asking questions about APF's parent company. Questions company officials have refused to answer for reporters. While shay is not personally gathering documents, she said she urged the company to do so.

"I have suggested to Mr. Hilton that this needs to be his number one priority," she said Friday.

Hilton could not be reached for comment Friday, but officials with the AG said if documents are not filed by Monday, the group could be held in contempt, which could lead to an arrest.

Officials with TRA could not be reached for comment Friday afternoon. They were also asked to provide documentation about their discussions with APF. The AG received those documents Friday and is looking over them.

[PatriotOne]

She said it was a company decision to pull out. Adding that the decision comes after the company learned it may have to pour as much as $1million into the 2-year-old facility. "There's analog phones in there," Shay said. "This is 2009. There are security cameras outside that have gone through Montana winters and summers without any maintenance."



Insert about a million eye rolls here.

[PatriotOne]

APF Had Planned Police Services

By Nick Lough
Story Published: Oct 9, 2009 at 7:25 PM MDT

http://www.kulr8.com/home/related/63900787.html

BILLINGS - Newly released documents show there was an agreement between Two Rivers Authority and APF to police the community if approved by the city of Hardin.
The signed proposal between Two Rivers Authority and American Police Force is dated August 18, and provides terms both parties will follow at the detention facility as well as possible opportunities for APF to expand outside of the detention center .

The agreement states TRA would write a proposal to the city of Hardin for APF to provide a police force and all necessary equipment for the operation of the police force and goes on to say APF agreed they would be ready to go within 60 days of notification. The city would also pay APF $250,000 for the work. The document says any proposal would need to be approved by the city of Hardin before moving forward.

A day after APF arrived in Hardin with Hardin Police decals KULR-8 asked TRA Vice President Al Peterson if he had any knowledge of APF providing police services.

"I have no idea I really don't because that's not been a part of any of the discussions we've had with any of them," said Peterson during the interview on September 24.

But at the end of the 13 page agreement Peterson as well as APF leader Michael Hilton and former TRA Executive Director Greg Smith all signed off on the deal.

Peterson said he could not remember any discussions he had with APF about police services to Hardin when asked about the agreement on Friday.

[pcosmar]

Shay has said a lot of things that are not true.
http://montanawithkids.com/billings/2009100911/hardin%E2%80%99s-last-stand-battle-of-big-horn-with-the-american-private-police-force/

The tale of woe would have continued for the Two Rivers Authority (TRA) Detention Center. This announcement came after Michael Hilton aka Captain Michael had passed along yet another one of his many tall tales through his spokesperson to the media.

Becky Shay says that he was having health problems that prevented him from traveling back to Montana by plane in order to attend meetings and set up the work fair scheduled to be held at the detention center next week.

She belatedly told the media, what seems to me like a convenient excuse, a reason for Michael Hilton not returning to Hardin, Montana. She further explained that Captain Michael had angioplasty surgery performed in early September this year.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ifOx0LPKy5B_0KAyPHyNTEqdQz6QD9B7TDI00

A judge last week ordered Hilton to appear in California Superior Court in Los Angeles on Oct. 27, over a $340,000 outstanding judgment he owes in Earnhart's case.

"He had me under his spell," Earnhart said of Hilton in a recent interview. "That prison (the Hardin jail) — he should be in it."

The people of Hardin really need to remove all those that have had anything to do with this Boondoggle from the inception.
Including the TRA that had the Unneeded and Unwanted Prison built in the first place.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer upbraided Hardin officials for first striking a deal with what he called "con men" and then defending American Police Force after Hilton's history emerged.

"They became part of the conspiracy. They became apologists," he said of Peterson and others involved in the deal.

Schweitzer added that Hardin residents "need some people to represent them that have some business skills, that are honest and have integrity."

[roho76]

I don't even know what to think about this anymore? Weren't the residents of this town defending having APF there? I hope they have learned a serious lesson about just going along with authority. Remember any body can get a badge and talk the talk. Does the town get to keep the Mercedes?

http://www.prisonplanet.com/images/october2009/011009top.jpg

[amy31416]

The greatest tragedy to me is that the town was so desperately poor that they put aside common sense and entertained the notion of letting them take over. I'm speculating, but I think that without the internet, it would have possibly gone through.

We have to make sure that we have tight-knit communities--desperation could easily be our downfall, especially with the way the economy is headed.

[pcosmar]

I don't even know what to think about this anymore? Weren't the residents of this town defending having APF there? I hope they have learned a serious lesson about just going along with authority. Remember any body can get a badge and talk the talk. Does the town get to keep the Mercedes?

I am guessing, NO
they were leased for show.

I am not sure how many "residents" were behind it. It seems the only ones we heard from were involved and expecting to profit.

[roho76]

Captain Micheal the Great

"I'm good to your family aren't I? I treat you good, right?" "So here's a what I need you to do."

"Sure thing, boss."

http://bloximages.chicago2.vip.townnews.com/billingsgazette.com/content/tncms/assets/editorial/d/61/671/d6167154-aac7-11de-ad31-001cc4c03286.image.jpg

[PatriotOne]

The greatest tragedy to me is that the town was so desperately poor that they put aside common sense and entertained the notion of letting them take over. I'm speculating, but I think that without the internet, it would have possibly gone through.

We have to make sure that we have tight-knit communities--desperation could easily be our downfall, especially with the way the economy is headed.

Jailbait

Prison companies profit as Raymondville's public debt grows
Forrest Wilder | October 20, 2006 |

Goddamn!” How else could Simon Salinas, Willacy County judge for 12 years, react to the promise that his county’s meager and battered budget could more than triple to $15 million within a couple of years? His employees don’t have health insurance, government buildings are falling apart, unemployment is over 10 percent, the county has run through four auditors in as many years, and there’s not even enough money to hire a dogcatcher for this sparse agricultural area in South Texas tucked between the giant Anglo ranches to the north and the booming border region. “I’ve turned over rocks to get industry here,” Salinas says. “Once they see the place, they say, we’ll go to the [Rio Grande].” With industry taking a pass on Willacy County, one of the poorest in the nation, local officials have turned to more outlandish, or bold, if you prefer, economic gambits. One long-standing idea is to build a spaceport to launch commercial rockets from an offshore barge. Another ill-advised venture involves using eminent domain to seize 1,500 acres on Padre Island owned by the Nature Conservancy with the goal of ferrying tourists to the island on a rickety, 40-year-old amphibious vehicle. Both proposals have stalled, but in the past decade Willacy County has found itself courted by one industry that has practically knocked down doors to come into the area.

“We’re at the point where we’ll grab anything,” says Salinas, an amiable former farmworker with a full head of white hair. “If it’s Prisonville, fine.” Prisonville is what the residents of Raymondville, seat of Willacy County, have taken to calling their community. Their town is home to a privately run, 1,000-bed state prison; a county-run, 96-bed jail with space for federal inmates; a private, 500-bed federal jail; and a recently opened private, 2,000-bed detention center for undocumented immigrants that is a crown jewel in the Bush administration’s border-enforcement policy. The four facilities are clustered on reclaimed grazing land, a bustling village of razor wire and guard towers across the highway from downtown Raymondville. The 3,600 prisoners—one-third of Raymondville’s population—who reside in this penal colony represent the heart of the area’s economy. Aside from employing hundreds of locals to guard the prisoners, the jails are supposed to stimulate economic development and provide revenue for the county. But Prisonville seems to have benefited a small group of private, for-profit prison businessmen far more than the town on whose humble aspirations they preyed.

Rest here:

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2320

[PatriotOne]

This is a long article but people interested in Hardin, MT should read about this facility in Texas.

Found this one googling James Parkay because of his involvement in the Hardin, MT project and his name came up also in the Texas facility.

This facility has some really creepy similarities to the Hardin story. But read the whole thing as it has Homeland Security involvement, prosecuted corruption involved, a President Bush visit, etc., etc., etc.

Jailbait

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2320

[PatriotOne]

Corplan Corrections

http://www.kulr8.com/home/related/63901022.html

HARDIN - In June of 2006 Two Rivers Authority began constructing the 464-bed detention facility in Hardin.
James Parkey, who is the president of Corplan Corrections in Argyle, Texas is the jail's architect.

KULR-8 spoke with Juan Guerra who is the former district attorney for Willacy County, Texas.

Guerra said he investigated Corplan in 2001 and 2002 on possible corruption in connection with a private prison being constructed in that county.

Guerra said his investigation resulted in the convictions of four people; the county auditor, two commissioners, and a man Guerra said was a consultant for Corplan who Guerra said plead guilty to giving the commissioners money so that they would award the contract to build the jail to Corplan.

Parkey was not charged with any wrongdoing in the case, but Guerra has a strong opinion about his business.

"He puts packages together and goes around to different areas across the country. He used to only be in Texas, now they are all over the country, using the same routine. What they do is promise all sorts of things. There are millions of dollars in bonds, revenue bonds and then they go into default. They make their money upfront and within a month they are out of there. They're not there to make sure this thing runs," said Guerra.

Parkey was seen touring the Hardin facility last month when Two Rivers Authority was in contract talks to lease the jail to the California-based firm American Private Police Force, or APF.

Al Peterson, TRA vice president, said Parkey was in Hardin strictly because of his intimate knowledge of the facility.

Parkey was said to be present at a meeting between TRA and APF in early September in California.

When KULR-8 called Parkey at his home/business office in Argyle,Texas to find out what if any his current involvement is with the Hardin Jail and to discuss Guerra's claims we were told that he was on a trip for two weeks.

Officials with a Corplan constructed jail in Bailey County Texas said it took them a year to get prisoners, but they are happy with the facility. Juan Guerra is now in private practice in Texas with a focus on private prisons.

He said it is a multi-billion dollar industry riddled with problems.

Two Rivers and CiviGenics contracted to operate the jail in the beginning. Community Education Centers, Inc. aquired CiviGenics in June of 2007. Peter Argeropulos, senior vice president for business development could not be reached for comment on the issue involving the Hardin Jail. KULR-8 was told he was on vacation. However, a spokesperson for CEC said the company currently has no involvement with the facility.

Jailbait

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2320

[BlackTerrel]

Strange story.

[PatriotOne]

Hey pcosmar. You've been following this story as close or closer than I. I just got done reading the whole Jailbait article and many of the same companies and names are the same as the ones that have come to light in the Hardin Project.

Hale-Mills - built the Texas prison and the Hardin Prison.

Municipal Capital Market Group underwrote the Texas facility and the Hardin facility.

Corplan Corrections Inc. (James Parkay) - Salesman/Pointman on the Texas prison and the Hardin prison

Same freaking story except the names of the locals change. Now throw in Homeland Security and George Bush on the Texas facility:

http://www.texasobserver.org/article.php?aid=2320

In November 2005, Department of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff promised to end the federal policy of “catch-and-release,” whereby the United States apprehended illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico and released them for lack of detention space. Instead, detainees would be held in detention centers funded by millions in new congressional appropriations until they could be flown back to their home countries. But where could space be found for all these people? Prisonville seemed a natural fit. “James Parkey shows up in town again, and this time it was supposed to be a secret, hush-hush project and that it was coming all the way from the president,” Guerra says. “If it leaked, all bets were off.”

To meet an October 2006 deadline set by Chertoff, the companies intent on building the 2,000-bed, $60.7 million “temporary” facility would have to scramble. That meant pushing the deal through without raising the hackles of any local naysayers. Only after the detention center was well under way did citizens and most county officials begin to unravel the mystery of how the project became a reality. Billie Pickard, a local gadfly, has been conducting her own personal investigation. One document in her fat file, “leaked” to her by an anonymous source, is a letter from Commissioner Noe Loya to Timothy L. Perry, acting chief of the detention acquisition and support branch of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement division. In the June 1 letter, Loya, the most fervent prison booster on the commissioners’ court, mentions a May 31 meeting in Willacy County with a Homeland Security official and “available team members” from an “existing project team that built two of the three [Raymondville jails].” This team is described in the letter as including “architects, contractors, facility managers, and financial advisers,” likely Corplan, Hale-Mills, Management & Training Corp., and Municipal Capital. Of this consortium, Loya writes, “The experience and knowledge will surpass any other group. This will allow for the ultimate success of the project and do so in the shortest amount of time.... Our team would need to present the conditions, terms, and recommendations.” (Loya did not return repeated phone calls seeking comment.)

Reacting to concern from some county officials about Parkey’s involvement, Capital Markets’ Harling led the negotiations instead, telling Salinas, “This thing was designed by Homeland Security. They want it in Raymondville. George Bush wants it.”

[pcosmar]

Hey pcosmar. You've been following this story as close or closer than I. I just got done reading the whole Jailbait article and many of the same companies and names are the same as the ones that have come to light in the Hardin Project.

Yup, there are a few rabbits to follow down holes.

Civi-Genics is another that I had posted. Too much to post here.
http://www.privateci.org/rap_civigenics.html

But this is the real life danger.
http://federalism.typepad.com/crime_federalism/2009/02/judge-convicted-for-privateprison-kickback-scheme.html

The answers became a bit clearer on Thursday as the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and a colleague, Michael T. Conahan, appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pa., to plead guilty to wire fraud and income tax fraud for taking more than $2.6 million in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers run by PA Child Care and a sister company, Western PA Child Care.

http://www.mediaisland.org/en/judges-pa-take-bribes-private-prisons

[PatriotOne]

Yup, there are a few rabbits to follow down holes.

[QUOTE]Civi-Genics is another that I had posted. Too much to post here.
http://www.privateci.org/rap_civigenics.html

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention Civigenics!



But this is the real life danger.
http://federalism.typepad.com/crime_federalism/2009/02/judge-convicted-for-privateprison-kickback-scheme.html


http://www.mediaisland.org/en/judges-pa-take-bribes-private-prisons


Shivers at evilness.

Have you read up about the Pyote Texas Juvenile Detention Center sex scandal? That operation (having sex with the children, trafficking them, etc.) was being protected by the Attorney General, et al.

Teen sex scandal ignored by AG, others for 2 years
Probe widened, involving hundreds of complaints of sexual abuse in system
Posted: March 27, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

The Texas juvenile justice sexual abuse scandal – in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton are accused of failing to take action – is a broader scandal that was covered up for two years, involving hundreds of serious complaints and investigations against dozens of staff members, according to officials.

The Texas Youth Commission scandal went unnoticed, says Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski, despite his numerous attempts, beginning in early 2005, to get local, state and federal prosecutors to investigate allegations teachers, administrators and guards had sex with minor male inmates.

Burzynski exposed the situation March 8 in testimony to the Texas legislature's Joint Committee on Operation and Management of the TYC. He stated he began his investigation Feb. 23, 2005, after a phone call from a teacher at the West Texas state school in Pyote, Texas, alleging another teacher at the school was involved in sexual misconduct with boy inmates.

In his testimony, Burzynski detailed being rebuffed by federal, state and local prosecutors for two years.

>More

http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54...

Another story and link:

Gonzales Implicated In Cover-Up Of New Pedophile Scandal
Letter from Sutton's office legitimized raping of boys in minor's facility
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/march2007/260307pe...

[pcosmar]

The Profit motive.

http://www.populistamerica.com/incarceration_nation_the_rise_of_a_prison_industri al_complex


Consider this disturbing fact: the United States now has the world's highest incarceration rate outside of North Korea. Out of 1,000 people, more Americans are behind bars than anywhere in the world except in Kim Jong-Il's Neo-Stalinist state. The US has a higher incarceration rate than China , Russia, Iran, Zimbabwe and Burma - countries American politicians often berate for their human rights violations.

Well over two million Americans are behind bars. Let us agree that violent criminals and sex offenders should be in jail, but most Americans are not aware that over one million people spend year after year in prison for non-violent and petty offenses: small-time drug dealing, street hustling, prostitution, bouncing checks and even writing graffiti. Texas, with its boot-in-your-butt criminal justice system, is now attempting to incarcerate people who get drunk at bars - even if they are not disturbing the peace and intend to take a taxi home.

Somewhere along the line, the Lone Star State becomes the Lock-Down State: Rodney Hulin, a 16 year old in Texas, was caught setting a dumpster on fire and sentenced to 8 years in an adult prison. Despite pleading to be removed to another section, prison officials found no reason to extract him from the general population (despite Rodney's official pleas). He was then repeatedly raped and infected with the HIV virus that causes AIDS. He ended the nightmare by hanging himself in his cell.

Even "progressive" states like California are eager to lock up the hapless and the marginal. Billy Ochoa, for example, is serving 326 years in a "SUPERMAX" (super maximum security) prison for welfare fraud. Billy is an addict, an inept burglar, and not-very-good trafficker of food stamps. Under California's "three strikes and your out" law, he is locked up in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day.



The Founding Fathers would be rolling in their graves even faster than they already are if they knew that prisons are now lucrative corporations. These "McJails" receive money from government on a per-prisoner, per-day basis. No doubt, had the framers of the Constitution imagined that future Americans could descend to such depths they would have banned the commercialization of prisons outright.

Not surprisingly, the executives of these for-profit prisons sponsor "tough-on-crime" legislation and even line the pockets of politicians who back "mandatory sentencing" laws. For-profit prisons even get to write new mandatory sentencing laws to guarantee the raw material (the rabble of society) for an emerging prison-industrial complex.

In a Great Leap Backward, American politicians have also repealed two federal laws (the Hawes Cooper Act and the Ashurst-Sumner Act) that virtually outlawed prison labor, making it a felony to move prison-made goods across state boundaries. Stamping state license plates for cars was generally acceptable, but these Acts tried to end the leasing out of prisoners to private companies - they tried to eliminate prison-plantations and "factories with fences."

In the 1970s, a Supreme Court Justice, Warren Burger, proselytized for more leeway as to what kinds of "projects" prisoners could work on. Before too long, Congress amended the laws, and by 1990 it was permissible for prisoners to produce products entering the stream of interstate commerce. Many of the largest corporations in America have taken advantage of prison labor in what might be called "Operation Sweatshop."

See also,
http://mediafilter.autono.net/mff/prison.html

[Anti Federalist]

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer upbraided Hardin officials for first striking a deal with what he called "con men" and then defending American Police Force after Hilton's history emerged.

"They became part of the conspiracy. They became apologists," he said of Peterson and others involved in the deal.

They became part of the what?

The, what was that, conspiracy???

Thought those didn't exist.

And just like the MIAC report, this was a story broken by "he who dares not be named".

FFS

[pcosmar]

And just like the MIAC report, this was a story broken by "he who dares not be named".

FFS

Really.
I knew he was covering and investigating it too. Ran across some of his in my searches.
Lots of eyes were on this once reported.

He did point an interesting side trail that is worth further attention.
This has not ended. ;)

but, I'm off to Azeroth for a bit...

[Rael]

Insert about a million eye rolls here.

yeah, analog phones and security cameras made you pull out? Hell, I could probably afford to replace those.

[pcosmar]

Though this story is off the front page news it is hardly over.
In fact it goes much deeper than Hardin Montana.

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=265

All of the above is disconcerting enough, but when one factors in President Barack Obama's desire to create a "Civilian Defense Force," potential problems only intensify. For example, in 1995, the United Nations' International Police Task Force (UNIPTF) was created. Ostensibly, the UNIPTF was formed to "carry out programs of police assistance in Bosnia and Herzegovina." Then, in 2003 the Civilian Police International (CPI) was created. This was a joint venture between the U.S. State Department and such notable private companies as Wackenhut and Kellogg Brown & Root (a Halliburton company; and, by the way, so is Blackwater. But this is just a coincidence, right?). The stated purpose was for "international law enforcement and criminal justice programs." Inertia for mercenary-style (backed by the federal--or even international--government) law enforcement has been growing ever since.

The question must then be asked: "Could the whole APF and Hardin, Montana, affair be a test run for Obama's budding Civilian Defense Force?"

Interpol and U.N. Back ‘Global Policing Doctrine’
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/world/europe/12iht-interpol.html

It is the first step toward creating what Interpol calls a “global policing doctrine” that would enable Interpol and the United Nations to improve the skills of police peacekeepers, largely by sharing a secure communications network and a vast electronic trove of criminal information, including DNA records, fingerprints, photographs and fugitive notices.

“We have a visionary model,” said Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of Interpol and the first American to head the international police organization, which is based in Lyon. More than 187 member nations finance the organization.

“The police will be trained and equipped differently with resources,” Mr. Noble said. “When they stop someone, they will be consulting global databases to determine who they are stopping.”

http://www.civilianpolice.com/
Civilian Police International

In support of the U. S. Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, CPI recruits, selects, trains, and deploys U. S. police officers to participate in international police development programs around the world. These civilian police (CIVPOL) programs are an important component of international peacekeeping missions. By joining the CPI Team, you are representing our country's ideals of tolerance, fairness, respect, and opportunity.

This is going to be an ongoing concern.