The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The State Building Commission on Wednesday voted to spend that money to fix a long list of major problems at the Stanley prison. The vote came after commissioners complained that buying the prison built by Dominion Asset Services of Edmond, Okla., was a major mistake.

The commission also told the state Department of Corrections to investigate whether the Oklahoma company can be sued over the code violations.

The prison played a role in the corruption conviction of former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala (D-Madison). Dominion executives gave $125,000 to Independent Citizens for Democracy, a campaign group Chvala illegally controlled in the summer of 2001, records in Chvala's criminal case show.

Chvala changed his position on the prison and agreed to the state purchase of the facility after the donations.

Chvala was convicted last year of two felonies and is serving a nine-month sentence on home detention

State officials said they had no choice but to correct dozens of code violations at the prison, which held 1,511 male inmates last week.

"This is the Legislature's fault," said Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Berlin). "Now, we have to fix it up."

Olsen said legislators should have demanded a discount on the purchase price of the Stanley prison, since state officials had a strong bargaining position and could have decided whether or when it opened.

"This was a serious mistake, and a boondoggle of the nth degree," said Sen. Fred Risser (D-Madison). "They sold it to us, and it didn't meet code."

Risser said the Dominion firm "made a nice profit" when the Legislature and then-Gov. Scott McCallum agreed in 2001 to buy the prison. Dominion employees also donated $4,000 to McCallum's re-election campaign.

Proper procedures ignored
"We're wasting $5 million on this," said Sen. Carol Roessler (R-Oshkosh). "This company totally did not follow (code) requirements."

Gov. Jim Doyle, chairman of the Building Commission, said proper procedures were not followed when the state purchased the prison. As attorney general in 2001, Doyle had advised legislators that no inmates could be placed in the prison until it was either leased or bought by the state.

The process normally used in state building projects was circumvented for the Stanley prison, the governor said, noting that the Legislature and governor must jointly agree on what is needed, and then the Building Commission must formally approve the plan.

The Stanley fiasco led to new laws prohibiting the speculative construction of prisons.

State government bought the prison in 2002, with the code violations "not readily observable upon inspection," state officials said.

Code problems that must be corrected include those in heating and cooling systems. Also, the state must install smoke controls in housing units and electrical grounding wires, rebuild electric conductors, and move metal stairs. Construction is expected to start next April and be finished by June 2008.

Assistant Milwaukee County District Attorney David Feiss, who prosecuted Chvala, said he mentioned at sentencing the $125,000 that Dominion officials gave to the campaign group the Democratic senator controlled.

Told of the code violations, Feiss said, "The entire transaction is sordid, so it is not surprising that there are details that were not known then."

Calls to Dominion were not returned Wednesday.

In 2001, Dominion Asset Services hired several lobbyists to push state purchase of the Stanley prison through the Legislature. Also lobbying for the purchase were western Wisconsin legislators and Stanley elected officials.

In 2001, according to state Ethics Board records, those lobbyists included former Senate Majority Leader Joe Strohl (D-Racine) and former Rep. Rosemary Potter (D-Milwaukee); John Matthews, former chief of staff to Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson; and Ray Carey, a friend of then-Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield).

Jensen pushed for state purchase of the prison during the 2001 legislative session.

Jensen was sentenced to 15 months in prison Tuesday after being convicted of three felony and one misdemeanor counts of having Assembly workers campaign on state time.

From the May 18, 2006 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Original Story URL:
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=424656