Over the first quarter of this year, lawmakers have largely turned to privatization as a solution for states in fiscal crisis. As such, DBA Press feels this may be an appropriate time to revisit the case of Hardin, Montana– the once little-known economic dust bowl that has become the poster child for private correctional development gone awry.
The newly expanded DBA Press “Rainmakers” source materials archive contains hundreds of pages of documents recently obtained through exhaustive public records requests detailing the difficulties Hardin has faced– and continues to face– with their $27 million white elephant private detention facility.
Such documents include internal jail development ‘consortium’ emails illustrating full knowledge of legal issues to face the jail (long after construction had begun and the town’s $27 million in bonds had been divided amongst the developers); memos and letters from state departments of corrections detailing shortfalls of the jail; emails detailing a mysterious $50,000 no-strings-attached payment from consortium members, Civigenics and Corplan, to the nearby town of Lodge Grass for the town’s participation in an interlocal agreement necessary for the legal operation of the jail; as well as dozens of pages of documents detailing failure of consortium construction contractor Hale-Mills to pay local contractors– as well as standing issues with faulty construction in the facility.
And much, much more… 
The archive also contains hundreds of pages of court documents, bond documents, contracts and meeting minutes from various communities in Texas where consortium members had engaged in the use of county employees (such as county commissioners and sheriffs) as paid consultants– who, at times were involved (and convicted in relation to) bribery schemes.
Visit archive here: http://dbapress.com/source-materials-archive/the-rainmakers-source-material
Read full story behind Hardin jail development here: http://dbapress.com/archives/115