[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 162 (Tuesday, November 16, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S14603-S14605]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            REGULATING THE INTERSTATE TRANSPORT OF PRISONERS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, I have introduced a piece of legislation 
in the Senate with my colleagues, Senator Ashcroft from Missouri, and 
Senator Leahy from Vermont. I have written this legislation with their 
assistance to deal with a problem that could cause and will cause and 
perhaps has caused significant jeopardy to Americans, American families 
and others.
  Let me describe the circumstance. There is a young girl from North 
Dakota named Jeanna North. Jeanna was a wonderful 11-year-old young 
girl from Fargo, ND, who was brutally murdered by a man named Kyle 
Bell. Kyle Bell had previously been sentenced to 30 years in prison for 
assaulting three other girls, had been convicted of violent acts, and 
then sentenced to life in prison for murdering this 11-year-old girl, 
Jeanna North, in Fargo, ND.
  This convicted child murderer and violent offender, after being 
convicted and sentenced in the courts of North Dakota, was being 
transported to prison in another state. Apparently, folks who molest 
children and are convicted of crimes against children sometimes are put 
in prisons elsewhere because they run into problems in prison. Even in 
that culture they are not considered very good people, so child 
molesters are sent to other prisons for their own safety. This fellow 
named Kyle Bell, who killed young Jeanna North, was being transported 
to a prison in the State of Oregon.
  This convicted child killer was being transported by a private 
company which was contracted by the State of North Dakota. Apparently--
and I wasn't aware of this--there are transport companies that hire 
themselves to State and local governments to transport prisoners and 
criminals around the country. The private company's name was Transcor.
  Kyle Bell was on a bus with more than a dozen other prisoners. The 
bus stopped in New Mexico at a gas station. One guard got out of the 
bus to fill the bus with some fuel, a second guard got out of the bus 
and went into the service station apparently to buy a hamburger or 
whatever one was going to buy at the food station, and two other guards 
fell asleep on the bus. The other guards slept on the bus.
  Kyle Bell, a convicted child killer, in handcuffs and shackles--with 
one guard putting gas in the bus, the second guard buying food in the 
gas station, and the other two asleep in the front seat--Kyle Bell took 
a key he had in his shoe, took off his shackles and climbed out the 
ventilator, the roof of the bus. That bus then continued on its route. 
It wasn't for 9 hours, when the bus was already in Arizona, that the 
guards discovered this convicted child killer had escaped. Nine hours 
later they finally discovered he had escaped. Two hours after that, the 
guards finally notified law enforcement authorities.
  Today this man is somewhere in this country. ``America's Most 
Wanted'' did a story last Saturday, the second they have done. Now over 
a month has gone by and this violent child killer is somewhere on the 
loose.
  Why? Because a private company that is required to meet no standards 
at all hired itself out to haul violent criminals. If you hire yourself 
out to haul toxic waste interstate, I will tell you one thing: you are 
going to have to meet standards. If you are going to haul toxic waste, 
one State to another, you have to comply with reasonable standards for 
public safety. The same is true if you haul circus animals. The same is 
true if you are trucking cattle across the country. But if you truck 
convicted killers across the country--no standards at all. If you want 
to be in that business, get your cousin, your brother-in-law, maybe a 
couple sons, buy a minivan and you are in business. Contract with a 
State or local government and you can haul violent criminals through 
Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, New Hampshire, anywhere. You do not 
have to meet any minimum standards. There is something wrong with that.
  Senator Ashcroft and I and Senator Leahy are introducing a piece of 
legislation saying: If you are holding yourself out to do business 
hauling violent criminals interstate in this country, then you must 
meet some reasonable minimum standards.
  When Kyle Bell walked away from that rest stop, he was wearing 
civilian clothes. Apparently, he walked into a parking lot, they think, 
of a shopping center. But he wouldn't have been noticed as a convicted 
child killer because he was wearing civilian clothes. One would ask the 
question: if you are hauling a convicted killer across this country, 
why would you not have that convicted killer in an orange suit that 
says ``prisoner'' on it? Instead, he was sitting on that bus with a key 
in his shoe and civilian clothing, so when he slipped out of that bus 
when the guards were asleep and walked into a shopping center parking 
lot, apparently no one noticed. So over a month has gone by and people 
in this country are at risk because this convicted killer is on the 
loose.
  This young girl, Jeanna North, who died, you can imagine how her 
folks feel. I talked to her folks last week. The aunt and uncle of Kyle 
Bell, this murderer, are worried as well because he has threatened his 
own relatives.
  The point is this: All of this has happened because a private company 
decides it is going to hire itself out to haul killers around the 
country, but there are no standards to be met. Senator Ashcroft and I 
and Senator Leahy believe the Justice Department ought to write 
standards--no tougher than they themselves will follow in the Federal 
Bureau of Prisons or the U.S. Marshals Service. Incidentally, they do 
transport killers all across the country. The U.S. Marshals Service has 
done it for years; so has the Federal Bureau of Prisons. We believe 
there ought to be some minimum standards that apply to these companies. 
The Justice Department ought to be able to establish those standards 
that are no greater than the standards that will be complied with by 
the Federal agencies themselves.
  Is this, this escape of Kyle Bell, some sort of strange and unusual 
occurrence? No, regrettably it is not. Let me give a few examples.
  Although there are no reporting requirements for private companies 
that haul convicted prisoners across this country, media reports 
indicate that in the last 3 years alone, 21 violent convicted prisoners 
have escaped during transport by private companies. No

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Federal Bureau of Prisons prisoners have escaped during transport--
none. U.S. Marshals Service--it has been years and years since the 
Marshals Service has had anyone escape from their custody during 
transport. But private companies that are unregulated and have no 
requirements to meet?
  July 24, 1999: Two men convicted of murder escaped while being 
transported from Tennessee to Virginia. Two guards went into a fast 
food restaurant to get breakfast for the convicts. When they returned, 
they didn't notice the convicts had freed themselves from their leg 
irons. While one guard returned to the restaurant, the other stood 
watch outside the van, but he forgot to lock the door. The inmates 
kicked it open and fled. One was caught 45 minutes later; the other 
stole a car and was free for 8 hours before being apprehended.

  July 30, 1997: Convicted rapist and kidnaper Dennis Glick escaped 
while being transported from Salt Lake City to Pine Bluffs, AR--again 
by a private company. While still in the van, Glick grabbed a gun from 
a guard who had fallen asleep. He took seven prisoners, a guard, and a 
local rancher hostage, and led 60 law enforcement officials on an all-
night chase across Colorado before being recaptured the next morning.
  November 30, 1997: Whatley Rolene was being transported from New 
Mexico to Massachusetts. He was able to remove his handcuffs and grab a 
shotgun while one guard was in a gas station and the other slept in the 
front seat. He later surrendered after a showdown with the Colorado 
State Patrol and a local sheriff's office.
  December 4, 1987: During transport, 11 inmates escaped from a private 
company after overpowering a guard in the van. Among the escapees was 
convicted child molester Charles E. Dugger and convicted felon and 
former jail escapee Homer Land. Apparently, they shed their shackles by 
either picking their locks or using a key. The guard in the van opened 
the van doors to ventilate it while the other guard was inside the 
Burger King. The guard in the van had been on the job less than a 
month.
  The man named Dugger was apprehended a short time later, but Homer 
Land forced his way into the home of a couple in Owatonna, MN, held 
them hostage for 15 hours, and forced them to drive into Minneapolis 
where they escaped when Land went into a store to buy cigarettes. He 
was later apprehended on a bus headed to Alabama.
  August 28, 1986: A husband-and-wife team of guards showed up at an 
Iowa State Prison to transport six inmates, five of them convicted 
murderers, from Iowa to New Mexico. When the Iowa prison warden saw 
there were only two guards, a husband and wife, to transport six 
dangerous inmates, five of them convicted murderers, he responded, 
``You've got to be kidding me.'' Despite his concerns, the warden 
released the prisoners to the custody of the guards when he was told 
the transport company had a contract to move these prisoners.
  Despite explicit instructions not to stop anywhere but a county jail 
until reaching their destination, the guards decided to stop at a rest 
stop in Texas. During the stop, the inmates slipped out of their 
handcuffs and leg irons and overpowered the two guards. The six inmates 
stole the van and led police on a high-speed chase before being 
captured.
  The escape was not even reported to the local police by the guards 
who were at fault but instead by a tourist who witnessed the incident.
  There is clearly something wrong here. I mentioned a few of these 
examples. Violent prisoners are being hauled across this country, 
interstate transportation, without the kind of basic precautions you 
would expect. Again I say if you want to haul toxic waste interstate 
you must meet specific safety criteria. But that is not the case if you 
want to haul violent criminals.
  What if you or your family were to drive up to a gas station and stop 
next to a minivan that is holding three convicted murderers being 
transported by some guy and his two sons-in-law to a prison in 
California? Is that something you would worry about? I would. People in 
this country ought to worry about that. There ought to be standards.
  It is interesting that most of these escapes occurred when a private 
company stopped at a fast food place or to get fuel. Do you know what 
federal agencies do when they need to stop someplace? They try to only 
stop at a police station or jail or prison so they have decent help in 
making certain these folks are not going to escape during a stop.
  None of this makes any sense. All of us know this is not the way to 
do business. The Kyle Bell escape is just the most recent. God forbid 
that this man should murder someone while he is out. God forbid someone 
is injured, hurt, or murdered during this person's escape.
  This story of Kyle Bell's escape was on ``America's Most Wanted,'' 
last Saturday night. I don't know whether he will be apprehended, when 
he will be apprehended, where he might be apprehended. But this country 
and its law enforcement authorities should not be having to go through 
this. This person should be in a maximum security prison in the State 
of Oregon right now. That is where he was headed. He should be serving 
life in prison for the killing of this 11-year-old girl. Instead, he is 
somewhere out there in this country, a danger to the American people 
because we have private transport companies that are required to meet 
no regulations, no minimum standards.
  The legislation I have introduced is rather simple. With my colleague 
from the State of Missouri, Senator Ashcroft, and my colleague, Senator 
Leahy, from Vermont, I have introduced legislation that will say the 
Justice Department shall establish minimum standards and minimum 
requirements a business must meet in order to transport violent 
offenders. I am only talking about violent offenders. Among those would 
be the requirement of certain kinds of handcuffs and shackles, the 
requirement for violent offenders to wear easily recognized, bright 
clothing identifying them as prisoners, and a range of other sensible 
ideas.
  The bill does not allow the Justice Department to impose requirements 
on the private sector that exceed the requirements the U.S. Marshals 
Service or the Federal Bureau of Prisons themselves will meet as they 
transport prisoners. But it seems to me reasonable, and it does to my 
colleagues as well, that we ought to require some basic, thoughtful, 
commonsense standards to be met on the part of these private companies.
  I should also say that some of the companies themselves believe this 
is a reasonable thing to do. Some of the transport companies themselves 
say there needs to be some set of standards. Because when anyone can 
get into this business without taking reasonable precautions, we will 
have convicted murderers escaping and the American public will be at 
risk.
  This legislation is supported by a wide range of organizations: The 
National Sheriffs Association, the American Jail Association, the 
California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the New York 
Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, the North 
Dakota Chiefs of Police Association, the North Dakota Fraternal Order 
of Police, the Victims Assistance Association in my State, the Klaas 
Kids Foundation in California, the Megan Nicole Kanka Foundation, and 
others.
  We call this bill Jeanna's bill. It is called Jeanna's bill in the 
hopes that the memory of this 11-year-old girl, Jeanna North, might 
serve for the Congress to pass good legislation that will impose 
sensible, commonsense requirements on private companies transporting 
violent criminals so some other family will not have to go through the 
agony, the heartbreak, and the sheer terror that has visited the North 
family--first because of the murder of their daughter, then the trial 
of the murderer, and now the murderer's escape.
  Let us hope Congress can pass this kind of legislation and we will 
not in the future be seeing stories about private companies allowing 
convicted killers to escape while they are being transported to their 
life in prison in a maximum security institution.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative assistant proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. FEINGOLD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.

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  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Bennett). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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