Colorado House Democrats

State Rep. McFadyen Featured on PBS NOW Episode about For Profit Prisons: "Should Companies Profit From Prisons?"

Airing Friday May 9, 2008 in Colorado:
8:30 pm on KRMA, KTSC and KRMJ

(DENVER)  Colorado State Representative Liane "Buffie" McFadyen, D-Pueblo West, will be featured in this week's airing of PBS NOW "Should Companies Profit From Prisons?" (episode #419). PBS NOW has been called "one of the last bastions of serious journalism on TV" by the Austin American Statesman. Award winning senior correspondent for this episode is Maria Hinojosa.

Rep. McFadyen has been featured in Time Magazine, on Fox National News, CNN, and NPR on issues related to prisons. Rep. McFadyen has 12 prisons in her state House District including ADX at Florence, also as known as "Supermax" and the "Alcatraz of the Rockies," where infamous inmates like Terry Nichols, Zacarias Moussaoui, Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Ramsi Yousef and Richard Reid are housed.

This episode, "Should Companies Profit From Prisons?" will center around the for profit prison industry. Rep. McFadyen is an outspoken critic of what she calls "failure factories.”

Rep. McFadyen has said, "One of government's most important roles is public safety. This job should be done by the government, not by companies whose goal it is to pay stockholders dividends for bodies in a cell.  I grew up in New York listening to stories about the Attica Riots. I watched jobs leave and go overseas. As a replacement for manufacturing jobs across rural America, we now have companies that ensure their profits from repeat customers called inmates. We have incentivized prisons with profits for CEO's and stockholders. Publicly elected officials should want to curb or at least level out the growth of prisons. It’s no coincidence that our prison population rates both at the Federal and State levels have grown out of control as long as we have had these for profit companies lobbying government. These companies are manufacturing failure for their profits, working against the will of taxpayers."

-- Posted by staff

Rep. McFadyen’s Work Zone Photo Radar Bill Passes House

In Memory of CDOT Worker Charles Mather

DENVER – Thirty-four year old Charles Mather worked for the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) and was killed when a semitrailer crashed into the rotomill machine Mather was operating during a paving project on August 26, 2006.

Today, Representative Liane “Buffie” McFadyen (D-Pueblo West) saw the “Charles Mather Highway Safety Act” pass the House on a 61-2 vote.

The act will increase the safety of highway workers by permitting the Colorado State Patrol to utilize photo radar through construction zones and to allow any subsequent fine for speeding to be doubled.        

“We still have a problem with people driving too fast through work zones and it puts everyone at risk, not just our highway workers but the drivers as well,” said Rep. McFadyen.  “Photo radar is an effective tool to slow people down in high-risk areas such as school zones.  It’s time to take the next step and extend it to highway construction zones as well.”
       
The bill now moves to the Senate where it is sponsored by Sen. Suzanne Williams, D-Aurora.

Colorado Work Zone Facts

• In 2004, (the most recent statistics available), 1,906 crashes occurred in Colorado work zones resulting in 768 injuries and 14 deaths
• Since 1929, there have been 22 Colorado Department of Highways/CDOT employees killed in work zones. Five of those fatalities have taken place in the last four years. The 22 fatalities do not include those from contractors.

National Work Zone Facts

• Four out of five work zone fatalities are motorists
• One work zone fatality occurs nationwide every seven hours (three a day)
• One work zone injury occurs nationwide every 15 minutes

--Posted by staff

Transportation Leaders Respond to I-25 Sinkhole

“We can put a band-aid on this, but more problems will arise”

(DENVER)  Some members of the House Transportation Committee responded today to the 40 foot by 40 foot sinkhole that appeared on I-25 late yesterday.

“Wow, a picture is worth a thousand words,” said Representative Buffie McFadyen (D-Pueblo West), the Transportation Committee Chair. “If those photos of the sinkhole don’t direct the state to maintain existing infrastructure, nothing will.”

State Representative Joe Rice (D-Littleton) had this to say:  “To those who criticize our infrastructure proposals but offer no other options about what we need to do and how we could do it, I would say, ‘explain your solution or explain the sinkhole.’ Until we do something about our infrastructure, more of these types of things are going to happen: with unknown economic, human and resources costs.  We're paying for it now -- we're just not paying for it in a way that's making progress.”

“The sinkhole is just a symptom of our aging and frail transportation infrastructure,” said State Representative Dianne Primavera (D-Broomfield). “We can put a band-aid on this, but more problems will arise unless we come up with a comprehensive solution. I hope we can create a solution before there is a loss of life.”

"A safe and efficient transportation system is key to our economy, our communities, our overall quality of life and our future,” State Representative Christine Scanlan (D-Dillon) said.

-- Posted by staff

Buffie McFadyen on Florence Supermax

"[Supermax] is a horrible place, and on top of being horrible, when [an inmate's] constitutional rights are not being met, it builds," she added. "When the inmate stops interacting, they start to disassociate . . . they're lashing out and that's my fear. We don't have enough people to keep the people working there safe." --Representative Buffie McFadyen

Read the Pueblo Chieftain article that contains this quote.

Rep. McFadyen Sounds “A Louder Alarm” on Supermax

Colorado lawmaker brought national attention to the “dangerously understaffed” prison

(DENVER)  CBS’s “60 Minutes” took viewers inside the maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado known as Supermax.  State Representative Buffie McFadyen (D-Pueblo West) and leaders of the correctional officers union gave an update on the staffing levels and the potential for danger in the facility. 

“It’s bad and it’s getting worse,” Rep. McFadyen said.  “We’ve been fighting for nearly two years, and still, the most secure penitentiary in the U.S. is understaffed.  We must sound a louder alarm.”

“Supermax does not have enough correctional officers to keep people inside and outside the facility safe.  If an inmate doesn’t get meals, if he doesn’t get toilet paper, if he doesn’t get the necessities of life, he might think he has nothing to lose by killing his Correctional Officer,” Rep. McFadyen said. 

Facts:

• In just the past 10 weeks, over 1,100 posts (8-hour, one person shifts) have been without staff.
• In the past ten weeks, staffing levels have been 14 to 20 percent below the minimum recommended by the Bureau of Prisons.
• In the last two weeks, the Terrorist Unit at Supermax has gone completely without staff for 24 hours straight.
• When Supermax opened in 1994, there were 240 correctional officers.  There are now as few as 170.

Click here to watch the 60 Minutes segment, "Supermax: A Clean Version of Hell."

--posted by Staff

Rep. Buffie McFadyen on Supermax staffing

"It's my understanding that whole housing units have gone unstaffed for eight hours or longer, including the terrorist unit," McFadyen said. "I'm calling on President Bush and the Congress to personally take note of what's happening at Supermax."

Read the post that includes this quote.

--posted by Staff

Buffie McFadyen calls on Feds to fully staff Supermax

When you're housing some of the nation's most dangerous prisoners, you want to make sure they're adequately supervised. In today's Pueblo Chieftain:

Pueblo Democratic Rep. Buffie McFadyen and union officials Tuesday called on the federal government to fully staff the Supermax prison in Florence, saying employee levels are dangerously low.
[...]
Units that house some of the nation's most notorious terrorists go unsupervised for up to 24 hours in some cases, said McFadyen and Mike Schnobrich, president of the prison council with the American Federation of Government Employees.

"It's my understanding that whole housing units have gone unstaffed for eight hours or longer, including the terrorist unit," McFadyen said. "I'm calling on President Bush and the Congress to personally take note what's happening at Supermax."

Here's hoping the Feds respond to the call.

--posted by Staff

[10/9/07 edited to add: Check out this Colorado Confidential post for a detailed look at the staffing situation.]