Louisiana Voice

You may remember BURL CAIN, the long-time warden at Dixon Correctional Institute (14 years) and the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola (21 years),

You may also recall that Cain resigned in 2016 after allegations that he sold land he owned in West Feliciana Parish to developers linked to two Angola inmates who were serving sentences for murder, that correctional employees performed private work for him, that appliances, material, food and lodging were provided by Cain for a number of his relatives through Angola and that he negotiated a side deal with a vendor called Controlled Recycling Equipment, Inc. that had built a recycling plant at Dixon. The deal would have paid him a 5 percent commission for every new plant he lined up for the company, an apparent violation of state ethics rules which bar state employees from doing personal business with companies that they hire.

Well, in 2020, Cain came out of retirement to accept the position of commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC).

Now it seems that Cain is back in full swing as the wheeler dealer that earned him the reputation as a power broker in Louisiana’s Department of Corrections organizational structure.

His predecessor, Eric Epps, was sentenced to almost 20 years in prison and fined $100,000 after pleading guilty to taking at least $1.4 million in bribes and kickbacks to steer more than $800 million in state prison contracts to favored vendors and for awarding some $4 billion in no-bid contracts.

JACKSON JAMBALAYA, a blog that covers Mississippi politics, recently ran an interesting story of Cain’s issuance of no-bid contracts totaling nearly $300 million.

Centurion, which had a contract to provide healthcare for MDOC prisoners but the company notified MDOC that it was terminating its contract on July 30, 2020, just a month after Cain was named to head the agency. Cain promptly declared an emergency and entered into a no-bid $56 million contract with VitalCore, a Topeka, Kan. firm, on Aug. 12 for a one-year contract to run from Oct. 6, 2020, to Oct. 5, 2021.

Nothing unusual about that. The previous provider pulled out suddenly and Mississippi’s 18,000 prisoners had to have health care.

But with a full year in which to come up with a request for proposals (RFP) and to put the contract out for bid, what did Cain do? He declared another emergency and Viola Riggins, who signed the first contract, obliged by signing another, this one for $66 million.

Come 2022, with two emergency contracts under his belt, one might think that Cain by now had enough time to put the contract out for bid. But no, it was time for the declaration of yet another “emergency,” and Riggins signed yet another no-bid contract, this one for $94 million. Such is inflation, it seems.

Finally, MDOC issued the long-awaited RFP in December 2023 and three companies submitted bids. They were Centurion, Wexford Health Services and VitalCore.

Centurion had the low bid, followed by Wexford with VitalCore submitting the high bid. But a committee empaneled to evaluate the bids on a point basis managed to score VitalCore at 4800, followed by Wexford (apparently destined to be a bridesmaid) at 4044 and Centurion a distant third place with a score of 3190.

So, now VitalCore has signed its fourth consecutive contract, this one for $100 million, giving it a total of $316 million in contracts (though “only” $82 had been paid on the current contract through September 1) – $216 million of those in no-bid contracts.

VitalCore had a contract with the state of Vermont for the medical care of prisoners in that state but a rash of deaths led to a LAWSUIT against the company by its former chief medical officer of operations who alleges that his signature was forged on VitalCore’s 500-page policy and procedures manual that was submitted to state officials.

Dr. George Zazzali alleged in his lawsuit that VitalCore’s medical equipment was in a “state of disrepair that indicated years of neglect” and that nurses who performed examinations were unqualified to do so.

Two days after lodging his complaint, his suit says, he was fired.

VitalCore is also a DEFENDANT in several other lawsuits, including three involving inmate deaths in MISSISSIPPI and VERMONT.

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LouisianaVoice is at the halfway point in its October fundraiser and we still need your help if you have not yet contributed. If you have, please accept my heartfelt gratitude for your support of journalism.

Newspapers are suffering across the board and reporters have been laid off as a result of the loss of advertising revenue. Metropolitan dailies in Shreveport, Monroe, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Alexandria and Baton Rouge have shrunken or been sold to corporations that have instituted drastic cost-cutting measures, primarily in the newsrooms. Sadly, the New Orleans Times-Picayune ceased publication completely. At one time, I thought small town weeklies and dailies would be the survivors but they, too, have felt the economic pinch and some have been shuttered altogether and that’s everyone’s loss.

All that left a void that television cannot possibly fill. Most Internet blogs are little more than expressions of opinions by wannabes. LouisianaVoice has its share (perhaps more than its share) of opinion pieces but we strive to cover news in a straightforward manner as well. I’ve cited many of those stories in earlier solicitations this month so I’ll try not to be redundant.

As with any investigative reporter, many leads or tips that we get turn out to be little more than someone’s sour grapes or an attempt to undermine a political opponent. We try to avoid those stories but they still take time and expenses as do the legitimate stories that we end up writing. That’s why we have fundraisers each October and April.

If you prefer to give money to the Food Bank or to hurricane and flood victims, that’s your prerogative and I certainly have no quarrel with that. It’s a noble thing to do. But if you can see your way clear to help the cause of hard-hitting journalism, it would be appreciated more than you could ever know.

To make your contribution by credit card, simply click on the yellow DONATE button to the right of this post and follow the directions. Unlike Donald Trump’s solicitations which, unbeknownst to donors, is a commitment to a monthly payment, ours is a one-time only contribution.

For this month’s drive, the most generous donor will receive an original copy of Huey Long’s autobiography Every Man A King, published in 1933 by the now defunct National Book Co. of New Orleans. It’s a collector’s item valued at $100. Leo Honeycutt’s biography of Edwin Edwards will be awarded on a lottery basis with everyone who contributes $100 or more eligible for the drawing. The book is signed by both Honeycutt and Edwards.

Finally, a signed copy of my latest book, The Mission, will go to everyone who gives $50 or more.

As always, thanks so much for your continued support for the past 13-plus years!

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There’s a meme floating around in cyberspace that says, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”

It was meant to convey the idea that much of today’s political philosophy and the division that goes with it is driven by religious convictions but it could just as aptly apply to the myriad stories of sexual abuse within churches, both Catholic and Protestant.

There are those who would argue that the number of incidents of sexual abuse in churches is miniscule when compared to the number of churches and that may be true, but the counter argument is that any sexual abuse in the church is excessive, intolerable and unforgiveable, especially when that abuse involves children.

In May 2022, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) somewhat reluctantly released the names of more than 400 of its ministers, counselors and other church workers identified as alleged SEXUAL ABUSERS that had been kept a closely-guarded secret for years.

Texas easily topped the list with 76 accused, followed by Georgia in a distant second with 30.

Fifteen were identified from LOUISIANA.

Though the overall numbers paled in comparison to number of the Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse, the totals for the Baptists were no less significant in that the SBC had successfully covered up the scandal that had been bubbling beneath the façade of judgmental purity and righteousness for decades.

It should be pointed out that the SBC sexual abuse scandal involved adulterous trysts between adults as well as children, for the most part girls, the Catholic disgrace mainly involved sex between priests and underage boys.

It should also be emphasized that the SBC offenses did not include other Protestant denominations like Methodists, Pentecostals or Mormons, each of which had their own sexual demons to contend with.

The problem of sexual abuse among Protestant clergy has been termed by some as a “crisis,” but the prolonged history of sex abuse instead is indicative of a persistent pattern of ministers taking advantage of their positions of power, influence, authority and perceived righteousness to “groom” children and in many cases, adult, vulnerable women.

Some abuse starts early. A former Baptist missionary was found guilty in 2023 of sexually abusing a four-year-old family member who later tested positive for gonorrhea while another began grooming a girl when she was seven, at one time masturbating while she sat on his lap. And when still another admitted to an unspecific adulterous affair, a woman in the congregation stood and announced that the “affair” began with her not an adult but it was when she was twelve that he seduced her on his office floor. He was “forgiven” by his family, his congregation and by God and continued his ministry while she was ostracized as the temptress.

Especially loathsome are the stories of ministers who told their prepubescent victims that it was “God’s will” that they submit to the reverend’s sexual desires or that they would be condemned to eternal damnation if they refused or if they ever told anyone

As often as not, when discovered, ministers tearfully “confess” to an undisclosed moral weakness and the congregation not only forgives but often applauds the sinner. The sickest aspect of that scenario is that the woman – or in some cases, the underage female – victim is forced to stand before the congregation and plead for forgiveness for tempting the goodly spiritual leader, especially in an offshoot of the Baptist Church identified as the INDEPENDENT FUNDAMENTAL BAPTIST (IFB) Church.

This post in no way is intended as an indictment of all of Louisiana’s 65 IFB churches, but the practice of such widespread sexual abuse in it and SBC churches is alarming. In 2018, the FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM identified 412 allegations of abuse implicating 168 IFB church leaders at 187 IFB churches and institutions in 40 states and Canada.

Not all accusations of abuse involved sexual abuse. Some are simply too horrible to even believe possible. The IBF, for example, subscribes to a philosophy of child “discipline,” beginning at an early age. As barbaric as this may appear, it isn’t unusual for an IBF family, influenced by the church, to begin spanking infants as young as FOUR MONTHS. In one case, an IBF pastor encouraged parents to begin spanking two-week-old infants for “crying too much.”

ABC News, in its 20/20 program, in April 2011 told of a couple who literally BEAT THEIR SEVEN-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER TO DEATH while adhering to the teachings of Mihael and Debi Pearl in their book To Train Up a Child, a book pushed by an IBF-affiliated college. The couple spanked the child for seven hours, pausing only for bathroom breaks and prayer.

Paul Rytting is a Utah attorney who headed up the Risk Management Division of the CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, aka the Mormons. For 15 years his job was to protect the church from legal claims, including sexual abuse litigation. Part of that job was to offer hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for confidentiality agreements – also known as hush money. One of those cases involved getting Chelsea Goodrich, by then 31 years old, to destroy recordings of the times that her father, a former bishop in the church, would slip into bed with her when she was a child and he was aroused.

In Arizona, that state’s Supreme Court in 2023 issued a RULING that the Mormon Church did not have to answer questions or turn over documents under a state law that exempted religious officials from having to report child sex abuse they learn about during confessional settings after two sisters filed a lawsuit claiming that the church had covered up its knowledge that their father had sexually abused them for seven years, beginning in 2010.

TWELVE TRIBES sect, described in some stories as a cult, believes in child labor and child discipline to the extreme. Matthew Klein said the church has child training manuals that provide detailed instructions on discipline of children, starting as young as six months old. “They would get spanked from morning and night,” Klein said, “20 to 30 times a day.”

All these Protestant denominations have one insidious thing in common with those pedophilic Catholic priests: child abuse. Whether that abuse is physical, psychological or sexual, and even when it’s carried out in the name of God, it’s still abuse and should never be tolerated – or forgiven. And a 12- or 13-year-old should certainly never be made to stand in front of a congregation and apologize for “tempting” a grown-ass man.

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LouisianaVoice is in its October fund drive and your support is vital to our continuing to bring you stories like the one below about the LSU Board of Supervisors in particular and the threat to higher education in Louisiana in general.

With Gov. Jeff Landry and the Louisiana Legislature making public records ever more difficult to obtain, however, our work will become more challenging. But LouisianaVoice is determined to continue its fight to make government and public officials accountable.

Whether is profiteering from privatizing prisons and other government services, furtive efforts to feather the nest of state employees in retirement, using campaign funds for personal purposes, efforts to destroy the careers of honest men and women or it’s about sheriffs and police who bend the law to their wills, LouisianaVoice has been there for you for nearly 14 years.

This is what we do. We attempt to shine lights into the darkest recesses of state and local government to let you know what your elected officials are up to. They’re not too fond of us but you have a right to know what they’re doing.

If you like what LouisianaVoice does, we invite you to support us. There is no subscription fee for LouisianaVoice because I want our information to be available to everyone. We don’t accept advertising because I don’t want anyone to think they can buy us. So, the only financial support we receive is from your generous contributions – and we come with hat in hand only twice a year – in October and April.

For this month’s drive, the most generous donor will receive an original copy of Huey Long’s autobiography Every Man A King, published in 1933 by the now defunct National Book Co. of New Orleans. It’s a collector’s item valued at $100. Leo Honeycutt’s biography of Edwin Edwards will be awarded on a lottery basis with everyone who contributes $100 or more eligible for the drawing. The book is signed by both Honeycutt and Edwards.

Finally, a signed copy of my latest book, The Mission, will go to everyone who gives $50 or more. Because of the book’s ending, it should be explained in advance that it was originally written in 2018 as an e-book, long before recent events, but its ending reads like current news.

You may send a check to 107 North College Street West, Denham Springs, LA 70726 or you may contribute by credit card by clicking on the YELLOW BUTTON to the right of this post and following directions. Whichever method you choose, please know that I deeply appreciate your support. 

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In the antebellum South (the “good ol’ days” to Republikkkans) if a slave displayed the proper amount of fealty to the “Massah,” he might be promoted from a field hand to the “big house.”

That’s what appears to have occurred on the LSU campus as university President William Tate quietly remained in his place as the historically political LSU Board of Supervisors bent to the will of Gov. Jeff Landry by voting to further erode student diversity.

With the exception of Jimmie Woods, all Black members of the board also took a powder and didn’t hang around for the vote on the resolution, which passed without objection – not even from Woods.

But wait. Woods is chairman so he kinda had to stick around until the meeting adjourned and he probably likes being chairman, so let’s not be to too generous in giving him a pass.

The board voted, sort of quasi-unanimously given the three conspicuous absences, to ABOLISH all diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at the university, a move that, coupled with looming budget cuts across the higher education board, is likely to have the dual-effect of seeing yet another exodus of professors and instructors while making the dream of college even more elusive for marginalized students.

But then, hell, that’s what the Republikkkans have been striving for all along – ever since one Ronald Reagan while governor of California said the state could no longer afford “intellectual luxuries” and that taxpayers should not have to subsidize “intellectual curiosity.” Later, as president, he expressed doubt as to whether students should be permitted, or are even qualified, to choose what they study. One of Reagan’s reasons for increasing tuition to attend college was to “get rid of undesirables.” One of his advisors while governor and later as president, Stanford economics professor Roer Freeman, went even further when he said, “We have to be selective on who we allow to go through [higher education].”

It’s a concept that obviously resonated with Republikkkans who, increasingly, have been encroaching on academic freedom (and access) in higher education. Make no mistake, it’s an insidious campaign to turn education into something available only to elitists.

So, now LSU has awarded Tate with a $750,000 salary with the possibility of picking up an additional $650,000 in incentives. Apparently one of those incentives is keeping his mouth shut as academic freedoms at the university are further eroded.

And as for Collis Temple, James Williams and Valencia Sarpy Jones, the three Black members (other than Woods), the perks that go with board membership apparently are enough for them to leave the room when the vote on the resolution came up for what turned out to be a quick non-discussion vote.

So, bottom line is LSU is fast becoming the sequel to Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It’s that, or the three members were so ill-informed that they were the only ones not sufficiently versed on the content of the resolution before it was voted on. Either way, there’s no excuse for their failure to stand up for the principles of diversity and inclusion.

Just so you know it’s not just control of LSU, Landry, given authority to appoint the heads of all boards and commissions, promptly named Misti Cordell as chairperson of the Louisiana Board of Regents, the governing board of higher education that sets policy for the state’s four public higher education systems. Cordell was appointed despite her lack of qualifications in administering higher education. Her background is as a physician recruiter for Affinity Health Group. But that matters little for a governor determined to push through his agenda.

But back to LSU. By their silence, the Black board members in effect condone a return to the Jim Crow days of separate drinking fountains and back of the bus seating.

Except for football and basketball, of course. On the playing field and on the court, diversity and inclusion means equity (hopefully superiority) and glory for the Ole War Skule. The ability to compete in those areas is far more important that the ability to remain competitive in the classroom or in research.

But hey! Let’s wish William Tate well as he toils away in the “Big House.”

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