Lane McCotter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lane McCotter | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Prison administrator |
| Known for | Formerly in charge of the reconstruction of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq |
Lane McCotter is a controversial United States prison administrator, formerly in charge of the reconstruction of the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Lane McCotter is a retired lieutenant colonel, whose service included Special Forces Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division and later as a Green Beret, during the Vietnam War. Post-Vietnam, he was appointed as warden of the U.S. military prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas through 1984; as Assistant Director, then Executive Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (1985–1987); as Cabinet Secretary for the New Mexico Corrections Department (1987–1992); and as Director of the Utah Department of Corrections (1992–1997).
Texas
During McCotter's administration of the Texas prisons, the system was criticized for overcrowding and violence, resulting in 12 deaths. At one point, U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice was threatening to fine the State $1000 a day if improvements were not made. It became an issue in the 1986 Texas gubernatorial campaign, and in 1987 newly elected Texas Governor Bill Clements pressured McCotter to resign.
Michael Valent
In 1997, McCotter resigned his post with Utah’s corrections system after Michael Valent, a 29-year-old schizophrenic inmate, died after being strapped naked to a restraint chair for 16 hours when he refused to remove a pillowcase from his head. Death resulted from blood clots that formed in Valent's immobilized legs and blocked an artery to his heart. The incident was videotaped, publicised nationally, and served as the basis for a lawsuit from Valent's family against the State to stop further use of the device, also naming McCotter.
Management and Training Corporation
McCotter was subsequently hired as Director of Corrections Business Development for the private sector, Centerville, Utah, based prison and education company Management and Training Corporation (MTC) that manages a number of prisons in the Southwestern United States, Australia, and Canada. In March 2003, he was in charge at the Santa Fe County Detention Center, when a United States Department of Justice team, investigating civil rights violations there, filed a report concluding that conditions violated inmates' constitutional rights, that they suffered "harm or the risk of serious harm" from insufficient healthcare and basic living conditions, citing numerous examples, and threatening a lawsuit if conditions did not improve.