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Law enforcement group calls for investigations into county officials’ dealings with a private jail company
A spokesman for the state’s largest law enforcement association is calling for state and federal investigations into dealings between McLennan County officials and a private detention corporation as the county continues to negotiate jail contracts.
“First of all, we don’t believe anything that officials in McLennan County say anymore,” said Charley Wilkison, political and legislative director for the 16,500-member Combined Law Enforcement Agencies of Texas. “The credibility gap in this county is incredible.”
McLennan County Judge Jim Lewis, county commissioners and Sheriff Larry Lynch have been wrestling for years with the county’s jail overcrowding problem. County officials say they sought proposals from 14 companies nationwide on a variety of options, including privatizing the entire county jail system and building a new, 1,000-bed jail.
The county received proposals from just one company, CEC, which has had a contract to operate the downtown county jail since 1999. CEC contracts with several agencies, primarily federal, to keep prisoners at the downtown jail.
The company’s McLennan County contract, which pays Lynch $12,000 above his county salary of $88,000 to oversee the downtown jail, expires Oct. 1.
Commissioners voted last week for the sheriff to maintain control and operation of the county jail on State Highway 6, on a recommendation from Lynch and after weekly protests from about 50 jailers.
Precinct 3 Commissioner Joe Mashek has called for the county to take back operation of the downtown jail to help alleviate overcrowding and give the county more time to study the situation.
Wilkison said he will ask Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to investigate whether Lynch violated the Texas Public Information Act by failing to respond to CLEAT’s open records requests for all correspondence between Lynch and CEC officials.
He said he also is seeking state and federal investigations about whether Lynch lawfully and ethically can accept money from the private vendor or whether it is a conflict of interest when he helps decide the fate of the jail system.
“The sheriff has taken $91,000 of personal money that goes into his bank account, and then he says, ‘I am still able to decide. I am still OK deciding whether it is in our best interest to privatize.’ That old dog won’t hunt. Nobody here believes that.”
The contract between the county and CEC, then called CiviGenics, originated when the late Jack Harwell was sheriff. The part of the contract which calls for payments to the sheriff, Lewis says, has not changed, although it has been renewed since Lynch took office.
Lynch did not return phone calls to his office or cell phone today.
Wilkison also charges that county officials should come up with more efficient ways to clear out the jail, especially of non-violent, first-offenders. He claims the CEC contract pays Lynch more for more prisoners.
“We think inmates are being kept in jail to create an artificial public safety crisis so the hue and cry for a new jail can come and the new jail can be privatized and built by CEC,” Wilkison said.
Lewis scoffed at that notion and said that Wilkison’s claims are off-target. He said Lynch is paid the same in the contract with CEC whether there are 300 prisoners or none.
“It is still his responsibility to oversee that jail,” Lewis said. “By statute, it is the sheriff’s responsibility, whether it was Jack or Larry. That contract has not changed, and up until 20 months ago, we didn’t have a prisoner in that jail. So does that logic make any sense?”
Wilkison also charged that Lewis’ office is using “stalling tactics” by asking for an attorney general’s opinion about whether his office has to release 170 pages from CLEAT’s open records request that Lewis claims are attorney-client privilege. Wilkison said Lewis’s office has released 1,300 pages to CLEAT pursuant to the request.
“We believe somewhere in that 170 pages will be some of the information that will tell the tale about how you get only one bid on a private prison,” Wilkison said. “If they have nothing to hide, then they have nothing to worry about. If they have done nothing wrong, then they should release it anyway.”
Lewis said attorney-client communication is privileged and exempt from open records requests.
“That is just as standard as everything,” Lewis said.
Commissioners will continue to discuss jail proposals at their weekly meeting Tuesday morning.
Permalink | Comments (11) | Post your comment | Categories: Around Central Texas, Courthouse, Headlines, Police & crime
Comments
By Fred
August 11, 2008 7:51 PM | Link to this
CLEAT is a very powerful Police Labor Union……..Lynch is going to “hang”.
By Taco
August 11, 2008 8:17 PM | Link to this
Bye, bye, Larry…….what a freakin’ loser!!!!
Wonder if he ever had a “set”!!!
By VETERAN
August 11, 2008 8:27 PM | Link to this
What comes around goes around. Now is time for a write in candidate.
By E Nuff
August 11, 2008 9:14 PM | Link to this
Nah Nah, Hey Hey Hey Good Bye. You mess with the bull……………… Time for new government Mclennan County, they all proved their GREED! Folks are complaining about Wiley, this has been a problem for many many many more years and it’s about to come out!
By James
August 11, 2008 9:22 PM | Link to this
I was a prisoner at the Civigenics facility in Limestone County. There were times that we were served rotten food and very little of that, we were expected to subsides our meals by purchasing commissary at inflated prices. If you had no outside help you were s.o.l. Medical care was nonexistent. The Civigenics company is ran by Bob Prince, the retired Texas Ranger. The Texas Rangers are the law enforcement agency that is supposed to investigate jail corruption such as what we are talking about here. Get the picture?
By People Lover
August 11, 2008 10:08 PM | Link to this
This p** me off.
Is there an honest politician? I
am tired of working hard to pay the salaries of these worthless pieces of trash!
By mclennan county citizen
August 11, 2008 10:50 PM | Link to this
Hey Larry, you made this bed, now lye in it. you spent the last several years “being better than everyone” looks like your just another crook!!! good luck worming out of this one
By ras
August 11, 2008 11:26 PM | Link to this
@ People Lover - Larry had an opponent in the primary that said the same thing CLEAT is saying now. In McLennan County, honest and politician appear to be mutually exclusive terms. Lynch said at his primary victory party “We are going to keep doing exactly what we have been doing.” The Texas Jail Commission had an opinion on the performance of Larry Lynch. Here is the Link, you decide:Texas Jail Commission Report LinkThe Trib should ask Larry what other legal action of which he has been notified. Oh, I forgot, the press and CLEAT are holding him hostage. Free Larry so he can defend himself. REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER
By ras
August 12, 2008 12:13 AM | Link to this
The real problem is not the new jail. The problem is the county paying $5,000 a day to CEC to house county prisoners. Who decides how many prisioners CEC gets to bilk the taxpayers for? The same guy that CEC pays $12,000 a year. The Sheriff.
By Grif
August 12, 2008 1:20 AM | Link to this
I used to work for CiviGenics as the COS, I can tell you that Lynch does not have the final say in how many prisoners are housed at MCDC. They are almost all FED. Thus INS and USMS send the offenders, not the county. I can also tell you that CEC is run by the same top managment that CiviGenics was run by. The same CiviGenics that allowed a prisoner escape who later killed. The same Civigenics that was on the news because of a riot that could not be cotroled. The same CiviGenics that hired COs before conducting a back groud check. By the way the officer that freed the inmate who later killed, hired before a back ground check. The same CiviGencis that is always under staffed cuts every corner to same money and will do anything to get that $. CEC is nothing more than a polished turd, and anyone who takes money from them is just as guilty. Waco needs to say good bye to Lynch and his good old boy system and CEC who is nothing more than a time bomb that tax payers will be cleaning up in the future!
By ras
August 12, 2008 2:54 AM | Link to this
Larry’s main problem at the jail has been that it is understaffed. Here is a LINK About where the good ‘ol boy system let us down. I don’t think Larrys’ problem is a lack of applicants as much as it is a lack of political contributors applying. @Gric - The fact that Larry has any control over how much taxpayer money goes to a private company that is paying him a kickback should disturb you. The judge keeps bringing up Jack Harwell did the same thing. Not really. Sheriff Harwell did not send his prisoners to the private company. To paraphrase Charles Reed, when an elected official endeavors to outsource his responsibilities, they admit their own incompetence.