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