[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 68 (Tuesday, June 6, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4523-S4524]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     INTERSTATE PRISONER TRANSFERS

  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, this is a picture of a man named Kyle 
Bell. This brutal criminal killed Jeanna North, an 11-year-old girl 
from Fargo, ND.
  After being convicted and imprisoned, Kyle Bell escaped. How did he 
escape? When North Dakota authorities were going to transport him to a 
prison out of State for safekeeping, a prison in the State of Oregon, 
they contracted with a private company called TransCor to haul him 
there. As he was being transported across the country by bus with a 
dozen or more other prisoners, this child killer escaped. While stopped 
at a gas station, two guards with this private company were sleeping; 
another was apparently buying a cheeseburger. Kyle Bell went out 
through the top of the bus and this child killer walked away.
  When I discovered what had happened, I thought to myself, that cannot 
be. We are turning child killers over to private companies to be 
transported across the country? But it is true. Then I discovered the 
record of these companies. You can be a retired sheriff and call your 
brother-in-law and say: Let's buy a mini van and let's go into the 
business of transporting criminals. In fact, in one state, a man and 
his wife showed up with a little mini van to pick up five convicted 
murderers. The warden of the penitentiary said: You have to be kidding 
me. They weren't kidding. That is who the State hired to transport 
these murderers. And of course the murderers escaped in short order.
  What I have discovered is we have private companies being hired by 
State and local governments to transport violent criminals around the 
country, and those companies have no requirement to meet any standards 
at all. That doesn't make any sense.
  I have introduced a piece of legislation I call Jeanna's Bill that 
says if any local or State government is going to contract with a 
private company to haul a violent criminal, they must meet some basic 
standards. They must meet some regulations. If you haul toxic waste, 
you must meet regulations. Haul cattle, you must meet regulations. Haul 
circus animals, you must meet regulations. But some of our States and 
local governments are willing to turn killers over to private companies 
who have no such standards to meet at all.
  I received a letter in the last few days from the Governor of Nevada. 
I want to say I pass him my compliments. The Governor of Nevada was 
sending a convicted murderer named James Prestridge to North Dakota for 
safekeeping under the Prisoners Exchange Agreement. Mr. Prestridge, 
along with another fellow convicted of armed robbery, was being hauled 
to North Dakota by a company that is called Extraditions International.
  Mr. Prestridge, this convicted murderer, escaped, as did John Doran, 
an armed robber. Mr. Doran was found just south of the Mexican border 
with a bullet through his brain, and Mr. Prestridge was recently 
apprehended. I wrote to the Governor of Nevada and said: I hope if you 
still intend to send this convicted murderer to North Dakota you will 
do it through the U.S. Marshals Service. They will haul violent 
offenders anywhere across this country for a flat fee and they don't 
lose them.
  I got a letter back from the Governor of Nevada. He said:


[[Page S4524]]


       In response to your request that Nevada stop using private 
     transport companies, please be advised our prison system has 
     ceased its business relationship with Extraditions 
     International and that all of this State's out of state 
     inmate transfers are now being staffed by our prison system.

  Good for him. He said, incidentally, Mr. Prestridge is now not going 
to be sent to North Dakota. Good for us.
  But good for him that he changed the policy. In our State, in the 
most recent days, the company that let this fellow go, the company 
whose negligence allowed a convicted child killer to walk away and 
evade authorities for some months, settled with the State for $50,000. 
The State sent them a bill for $102,000 and the company said: We won't 
pay it. We'd pay you $50,000. And then the State says this company is a 
pretty good company and we will use them again.
  My State is making a mistake, in my judgment. I would like every 
State to make a decision when they are going to transport violent 
criminals around this country, do it with law enforcement officials, do 
it with the U.S. Marshals Service. They will do it for a flat fee and 
then some American family won't have to worry that, when they pull up 
at a gas station, next to them at the pump is a mini van with two 
inexperienced folks hauling three murderers. What is that about, in 
terms of public safety?
  It seems to me we ought to have enough common sense in this country 
when we have convicted someone of killing children, when we have 
convicted someone of murder or violent crimes, at least we ought not to 
turn them into the arms of someone inexperienced in the private sector, 
a company that has to meet no standards at all with which to transport 
them. That doesn't make any sense to me.
  So I say to the Governor of Nevada: Good for you. It is the right 
decision. I would say to our State: Change your mind. Decide this 
company should not haul violent offenders in North Dakota and that when 
you are going to transport a violent offender, the U.S. Marshals 
Service ought to be used to do it.
  I say to every State official across this country: Until we get in 
place basic standards these companies must meet, you ought not use them 
for transporting violent offenders. Were I a chief executive of a 
State, I would not use them anyway because I do not think people who 
kill children, as in the case of Kyle Bell, ought to be turned over to 
anyone other than law enforcement authorities to transport them to 
another place of incarceration.

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