***Hardin, USA: APF exposed as a United Nations Civilian Police front group!
Dok:
Judge: Hardin Jail Can Take Out-of-State Inmates
By Matthew Brown, Associated Press, 06-06-08
BILLINGS – A state judge has ruled that a $27 million jail in Hardin can accept federal or out-of-state prisoners — offering potential relief for a project beset by difficulties since its completion last July.
The publicly financed but privately operated jail has sat empty because it has no contracts for inmates to fill its 464 beds. With no money coming in, the city has been forced to dip into a contingency fund to cover payments on its construction bonds.
Those bonds went into default last month, and the jail risks foreclosure if it remains empty.
City officials had partnered with a Texas firm to build the Two Rivers Detention Facility, touting it as Hardin's largest economic development project in 70 years. But Attorney General Mike McGrath in December issued an opinion declaring state law bars out-of-state or federal prisoners at county jails such as Two Rivers.
Thursday's order from District Judge Jeffrey Sherlock in Helena said McGrath and his attorneys misinterpreted the law. Sherlock pointed to Idaho inmates housed at the Sanders County jail in Thompson Falls as evidence Hardin was not treated fairly.
The court order came in a lawsuit filed by the city in response to McGrath's opinion.
"It's vindication pure and simple," said Greg Smith with Hardin's Two Rivers Authority, the city agency that built the facility. The town of Deer Lodge is also a partner in the project.
State officials have not decided whether to file an appeal, said Bob Anez with the Department of Corrections, one of the defendants in the case.
Sherlock wrote that state law "expresses the legislature's clear and unambiguous determination that detention centers can house out-of-state felony and misdemeanor inmates."
The same is true of federal inmates, the judge wrote.
Smith said the city had been awaiting a ruling from Sherlock before stepping up efforts to find prisoners from outside Montana.
"It means we can go out and start marketing the facility to states, counties whatever we need to get enough (prisoners) to get it open," he said. "It's probably not going to be happen overnight, but we can start."
A spokeswoman for McGrath, Lynn Solomon, referred questions to Gov. Brian Schweitzer's office. McGrath is seeking election in November to Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court.
Schweitzer had backed McGrath's opinion in a March 24 letter to Hardin officials in which he urged the city to find other uses for the jail. On Thursday, Schweitzer spokeswoman Sarah Elliot said the governor was interested in making the project work.
"We didn't make that interpretation," she said of McGrath's opinion barring out-of-state inmates. "They asked for the opinion from the attorney general and he gave it to them."
Elliot also said the governor's office had anticipated a possible reversal of McGrath's opinion. She said he called the governors of Wyoming, Colorado, Washington and Oregon last month to gauge their interest in using the jail.
Wyoming corrections officials later toured the facility and said it did not suit their needs.
The governor had previously suggested the jail could be used to house state sex offenders. Hardin officials said at the time they were wary of the stigma attached to sex offenders.
The city also had spoken with state and federal officials about taking Bureau of Indian Affairs prisoners.
The jail was built at a time when Montana's prison population was on the decline, dropping 4 percent last year from 3,572 to 3,431. The Two Rivers jail needs at least 250 prisoners to be financially viable.
For the past two months, Hardin covered the facility's bond payments by drawing off a contingency reserve built into the bonds.
Mike Harling with Municipal Capital Markets, the Texas firm that helped arrange financing, declined to say how long the reserve would last without new revenues. He said only that there was "sufficient time to work out the problem" by finding inmates.
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/judge_hardin_jail_can_take_out_of_state_inmates/3799/
Dok:
Hardin Has Gitmo Aspirations
By Kellyn Brown, 05-01-09
Few towns are as welcoming to felons as Hardin, Montana. Residents there have pleaded with Gov. Brian Schweitzer to send any and all criminals to their town. And since that hasn’t worked out, they have turned to alleged terrorists to fill their empty prison by recently proposing shipping accused members of Al-Qaeda to Eastern Montana if the Obama Administration closes the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in Cuba. Last week, the Hardin City Council unanimously endorsed the idea of Gitmo North.
It sounds crazy because it is. Why would anyone want to be the new Gitmo, a detention camp much maligned for its harsh conditions? Well, it’s important to note this wasn’t Hardin’s original plan. The 460-bed jail was built with hopes of housing criminals from out of state, but the attorney general ruled that such a proposal violated state law and the governor said he couldn’t rewrite it. But when a judge ruled that the facility could take out-of-staters, and Montana said it wouldn’t fight the ruling, it appeared that Hardin was poised to get what it wanted most: bad guys.
But that hasn’t happened. First Wyoming officials said they wouldn’t send their inmates north because it was concerned with lockdown areas at the facility. No other states have stepped forward with cash and criminals. With a declining prison population, the state of Montana doesn’t need the space and Gallatin County, which is sending its jail inmates to other facilities while it builds a new one of its own, won’t use Hardin’s either. Gallatin County Sheriff Jim Cashell called Hardin’s Two Rivers space, “basically a warehouse” and was especially concerned about the 24-inmate rooms.
Without a suitor, the Two Rivers Authority has become increasingly desperate as its facility, which was built as an economic engine, lies vacant and the economy has continued to deteriorate. Big Horn County, of which Hardin is the seat, has a 10.4 percent unemployment rate, the highest in Eastern Montana. So who can blame Greg Smith, Two Rivers executive director, for floating the crazy idea of shipping Gitmo terrorists to Montana? Well, Sen. Max Baucus, for one.
As soon as the local media began reporting on Hardin’s hopes to lockup Al-Qaeda members, Baucus worked hard to knock down the proposal. An e-mail his office sent out last week blared: “Baucus: Don’t Bring Terrorists to Montana.” Federal law enforcement appear to agree that it's a poor fit and U.S. Marshall Dwight MacKay pointed out the obvious: “These are not the normal Joe Six-Pack meth users.”
Montana is a tiny state in a big nation, and unfortunately, our fellow countrymen often identify us by what little reference points make national news. Does a state once infamous as the home of the Unabomber, and which increasingly bases a good chunk of its economy on tourism, want to be knows as that place in the West with all the accused terrorists?
That hasn’t deterred Smith, who has continued to put a positive spin on Montana as the new Guantanamo Bay. For one, Smith said the facility can easily be upgraded to higher security and if there was an escape, he pointed out that there are few places to hide in the predominately homogeneous population surrounding the facility – fleeing members of Al-Qaeda would apparently stick out on the Montana prairie.
Smith is making his case for a Gitmo North to the national media. He’s talked to MSNBC, appeared on “Good Morning America” and talked to Alan Colmes, formerly of Fox’s “Hannity and Colmes.”
I find some irony in the timing of Smith’s plea, since Kalispell recently had its own divisive debate over a proposed halfway house on the south side of town. Nearby residents have decried the location and worry about declining property values and a potential escape. Of course, the state is making Kalispell build the center out of obligation rather than economic stimulus. But once this Gitmo idea goes away, I wonder if Hardin will be so desperate as to plead for our “Joe Six-Pack meth users” in lieu of a new prerelease center. It’s an idea no more outlandish than Gitmo North.
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/hardin_has_gitmo_aspirations/10036/
Dok:
Rehberg to Schweitzer: Take a Closer Look at Hardin Jail
Hardin jail
By Kellyn Brown, 05-12-09
This week, Congressman Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., belatedly entered the Hardin jail fray. He sent a letter to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, asking that he reconsider housing state inmates at the facility in response to Department of Corrections Advisory Panel’s recent recommendation that the state needs 920 additional prison beds.
Montana officials have been reluctant to use the Hardin jail, however, because of its dormitory-style housing; the state standard is to allow a maximum of just two people per cell.
Rehberg writes: “I believe it’s time for a closer look at Hardin as a viable answer to the long term needs of the Montana Department of Corrections.”
The Hardin jail was built as an economic engine for that city and has been desperate for prisoners since its completion. It recently made news when it offered to house Guantanamo Bay detainees.
Here's entire letter from Rehberg to Schweitzer:
Dear Governor Schweitzer:
With the recent decision by Montana’s Corrections Advisory Council to endorse a plan for 920 new prison beds in our state it is becoming apparent that our prison population will be growing beyond current capacity. Further compounding this problem is a concern that the state will not have the funding necessary to construct these beds. As advisory council member Eve Franklin stated, “With all the good intentions, we can’t afford it. There will be no money in the budget.” As you are aware, a 464 bed detention facility currently sits empty in Hardin. I respectfully request the consideration of the Hardin facility as a potential piece of the solution to our state’s upcoming corrections capacity challenges.
To date, the Two Rivers Detention Center has attempted to fill its facility a variety of ways including with both in-state and out-of-state prisoners, federal prisoners, and even terrorists from the Guantanamo Bay Detention camp. In a March 24, 2008 letter to folks in the Hardin community regarding the potential for housing Montana Department of Corrections inmates in Hardin, you stated, “we do not have the prisoners to send to the facility.” The recommendation this week from the Corrections Advisory Council, that a future need for prison beds will soon exist, appears to be at odds with your statement. I believe it’s time for a closer look at Hardin as a viable answer to the long term needs of the Montana Department of Corrections.
I ask that your administration take a strong look toward the Hardin facility as you seek solutions for our state’s long term corrections needs. If I can be of any assistance with this challenge, my office stands ready to help.
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/rehberg_to_schweitzer_take_a_closer_look_at_hardin_jail/10377/
Dok:
Hardin Jail Lands Contract With Security Firm
By Matthew Brown, Associated Press, 09-10-09
BILLINGS – An empty jail where promoters tried unsuccessfully to bring Guantanamo Bay terrorism detainees has landed a 10-year operating contract with a private security firm that wants to sharply expand the lockup.
The deal to house hundreds of low- and medium-security inmates in the Hardin jail involves American Police Force, a company with international security operations that has offices in Washington, D.C., and Santa Ana, Calif.
Full terms of the contract were not provided. But Albert Peterson, vice president of Hardin's Two Rivers Authority, the city's quasi-public economic development agency, said the agency would receive $5 per prisoner a day and enough additional money to pay off $27 million in bonds still owed on the jail.
Those bonds went into default last year.
The first batch of prisoners most likely would come from California's state prison system, said Peterson, who also serves as superintendent of Hardin's public schools.
Two Rivers executive director Greg Smith said federal prisoners also could be housed in the jail, although U.S. Marshal Dwight MacKay said his office had not been contacted about the possibility.
"I don't know where in the heck they're getting them from," MacKay said.
An American Police Force representative who asked to remain anonymous because of security concerns said the existing 464-bed jail would be expanded to include a 102,000 square-foot military and law enforcement training center, homeless shelter, animal shelter and possibly enough beds for as many as 2,000 prisoners.
He said the firm did not yet have contracts for inmates but expected to get at least 1,000 now that it has a place to house prisoners.
He said the firm plans to invest $30 million in new construction at the jail site at the edge of Hardin, a town of 3,500 located about 45 miles southeast of Billings.
That includes at least $17 million for the training center, which is envisioned to offer everything from sniper training to DNA analysis for domestic and international law enforcement and military personnel.
But the operating contract, signed Sept. 4, is limited to the existing jail, said Two Rivers' Greg Smith.
"All this stuff kind of takes time," he said. "The focus here to me is on the detention center — get the thing open and run it."
Smith declined to answer questions about the contract, but said he would make the document public after presenting it to the Hardin city council next Tuesday.
Members of the authority and Hardin officials have spent much of the last two years searching for inmate contracts to no avail. Asked about the likelihood of American Police Force succeeding, Smith said he was confident the first batch of 150 to 200 prisoners would be in place by mid-January.
He said the first payment under the contract is due Sept. 1.
On its Web site, American Police Force lists services ranging from convoy security in war zones such as Iraq to assault weapons sales and investigations into cheating spouses. It is registered as a California corporation, under the name American Private Police Force Org. Inc.
The Hardin jail was built by the Two Rivers Authority as an economic development project in cooperation with a consortium of Texas developers. Its backers had hoped to land contracts to house state and federal inmates.
But it has remained empty after the administration of Gov. Brian Schweitzer said it had no need for the facility and other contracts never materialized.
"Thank you, governor, for turning Hardin down, because now we've got something that's 10 times better," Peterson said.
The facility's prior contract operator, CiviGenics, left about six months ago.
Montana Department of Corrections spokesman Bob Anez said his agency was not involved in the deal between Two Rivers and American Police Force.
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/hardin_jail_to_house_federal_prisoners/12912/
Dok:
Hardin Jail Deal Raises Several Questions
Photo from Two Rivers Detention Facility
By Matthew Brown, Associated Press, 09-12-09
BILLINGS – The Two Rivers Detention Center was promoted as the largest economic development project in decades in the small town of Hardin when the jail was built two years ago. But it has been vacant ever since.
City officials have searched from Vermont to Alaska for inmate contracts to fill the jail, only to be turned down at every turn and see the bonds that financed its construction fall into default. They even floated the idea of housing prisoners from Guantanamo Bay at the jail.
So when Hardin officials announced this week that they had signed a deal with a California company to fill the empty jail, it was naturally a cause for celebration. Town officials talked about throwing a party to mark the occasion, their dreams of economic salvation a step closer to being realized.
But questions are emerging over the legitimacy of the company, American Police Force.
Government contract databases show no record of the company. Security industry representatives and federal officials said they had never heard of it. On its Web site, the company lists as its headquarters a building in Washington near the White House that holds "virtual offices." A spokeswoman for the building said American Police Force never completed its application to use the address.
And it's unclear where the company will get the inmates for the jail. Montana says it's not sending inmates to the jail, and neither are federal officials in the state.
An attorney for American Police Force, Maziar Mafi, describes the Santa Ana, Calif., company as a fledgling spin-off of a major security firm founded in 1984. But Mafi declined to name the parent firm or provide details on how the company will finance its jail operations.
"It will gradually be more clear as things go along," said Mafi, a personal injury and medical malpractice lawyer in Santa Ana who was only hired by American Police Force a month ago. "The nature of this entity is private security and for security purposes, as well as for the interest of their clientele, that's why they prefer not to be upfront."
On its elaborate Web site and in interviews with company representatives, American Police Force claims to sell assault rifles and other weapons in Afghanistan on behalf of the U.S. military while providing security, investigative work and other services to clients "in all 50 states and most countries."
The company also boasts to have "rapid response units awaiting our orders worldwide" and that it can field a battalion-sized team of special forces soldiers "within 72 hours."
Representatives of American Police Force said the company presently employs at least 16 and as many as 28 people in the United States and 1,600 contractors worldwide.
"APF plays a critical role in helping the U.S. government meet vital homeland security and national defense needs," the company says on its Web site. "Within the last 5 years the United States has been far and away our" number 1 client.
However, an Associated Press search of two comprehensive federal government contractor databases turned up no record of American Police Force.
Representatives of security trade groups said they had never heard of American Police Force, although they added secrecy was prevalent in the industry and it was possible the company had avoided the public limelight.
"They're really invisible," said Alan Chvotkin, executive vice president and counsel for the Professional Services Council. The group's members include major security contractors Triple Canopy, DynCorp and Xe Services, formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide.
"Even a single unclassified contract in the last couple of years should show up" in the federal database, Chvotkin added.
Spokesmen for the State Department and Defense Department said they could not immediately find any records of contracts with the company. The city has not released a copy of its agreement with American Police Force. But the deal as announced would be a sweet one for Hardin, a depressed rural town of 3,500 about 45 miles east of Billings.
The company is pledging to fill the 464-bed facility by early next year.
Hardin officials say the first payment on the contract is due Feb. 1 — regardless of whether any prisoners are in place. The city's economic development authority would get enough money to pay off the bondholders and receive $5 per prison a day.
American Police Force also is promising to invest $30 million in new projects for the city, including a military and law enforcement training center with a 250-bed dormitory and an expansion of the jail to 2,000 beds. The company says it will build a homeless shelter, offer free health care for city residents and even deliver meals to the needy.
Where the prisoners would come from is unclear. City officials said California was the most likely possibility, but a spokesman for that state's corrections system said there was no truth to the claim.
Federal prisoners also were mentioned by both American Police Force and the city. U.S. Marshal Dwight MacKay in Billings said he would have been notified if such a plan was pending.
"There's skepticism over whether this is a real thing," MacKay said.
Hardin officials said they were approached by American Police Force about six months ago, soon after the city made international news in its quest to become "America's Gitmo." American Police Force incorporated around the same time.
Albert Peterson, the city's school superintendent and vice president of the authority that built the jail, said the city was "guaranteed" the contract would be upheld.
"There's never a question in my mind after I've done my homework. It's legit," Peterson said of American Police Force. "We believe in each other."
The contract was still being reviewed by the city attorney, he said.
Peterson refused to answer when asked if he knew the name of American Police Force's parent firm. He said news coverage of the city's political tussles with the administration of Gov. Brian Schweitzer had left him suspicious of the press. The administration brought a court challenge over whether Hardin could take out-of-state inmates at the jail.
"If you're looking for the source of the money, you're not going to find it from me," Peterson said.
A member of the Texas consortium that developed the jail, Mike Harling, said he had "every reason to believe they'll be successful."
Mafi, the American Police Force attorney, said his company intends to reverse Hardin's recent problems with the jail and give the town an economic boost.
In Santa Ana, American Police Force occupies a single suite on the second floor of a two-story office building. During a visit to the location Thursday, a reporter for The Associated Press encountered a uniformed man behind a desk who would identify himself only as "Captain Michael."
The man declined to discuss basic details about the company and referred the reporter to the company's Web site. In a subsequent phone interview, he provided his surname but insisted it not be used because of security concerns. The man said he was a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Montenegro with decades of experience in military and law enforcement operations.
The man said his boss is a retired U.S. Army colonel named Richard Culver who is currently overseas. Culver's role with the company could not be immediately verified.
The company claim of a headquarters address is just up the street from the White House.
The K Street building houses "virtual offices," where clients pay to use the prestigious Pennsylvania Avenue address and gain access to onsite conference rooms but have no permanent presence.
"It lets small businesses get started up and have a professional front and not have a lot of a cash to do it," said Ashley Korner with Preferred Offices, which leases the location.
She said American Police Force's application to use the address was pending, but incomplete.
http://www.flatheadbeacon.com/articles/article/hardin_jail_deal_raises_several_questions/12963/
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