By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Wednesday approved Stacia A. Hylton as the new U.S. Marshal by unanimous consent.
Authorities said Hylton returns to the U.S. Marshals Service after operating her own consulting company, Hylton Kirk & Associates.
She served in federal law enforcement for 29 years, including as the Federal Detention Trustee from 2004-2010 and in a number of leadership positions in the Marshals Service from 1980-2004, including Acting Deputy Director, Assistant Director of Prisoner Operations, Chief Deputy in the District of South Carolina and Chief of Judicial Security Programs.
“I am pleased that Stacia Hylton will return to the U.S. Marshals Service to build upon 29 years of distinguished service at the department,” said Atty. General Eric Holder Jr.
Jeff Carter, a spokesman for the Marshals Service told ticklethewire.com that the current Marshal John Clark will step down Jan. 3 to enter private industry. Later in the morning, Clark issued a statement saying has accepted a position at Lockheed Martin as director of security operations for information systems and global solutions.
Acting as its Trustee, Hylton had her OFDT award a $137 million, five-year renewable contract for GEO competitor CCA in Pahrump, Nevada, for which there was no demonstrable need.
The requirements for National Environmental Policy Act compliance were skirted via an elaborate charade, so community opposition could be disregarded, a calculation of an actual need and exploration of less costly and disruptive alternatives was avoided, and the contractor could get that much guaranteed revenue without ever holding a single prisoner.
Hyton’s office protected her by stonewalling Freedom of Information Act requests for a year, then contending it only possessed two e-mails concerning this massive giveaway. Ironically, FOIA documents obtained separately from the US Marshals Service confirmed both her involvement in the contract award and her attempt to make her role less visible.
Her pre-retirement efforts to inoculate herself from oversight and to minimize scrutiny of her responsibility for this boondoggle were successful, it appears, as her nomination sailed through on unrecorded voice votes in Committee and on the Senate floor.
One presumes the Democrats didn’t want to alienate the Obama administration, and the Republicans didn’t want to alienate an industry that was one of its major contributors.
Had the national media put similar efforts into examining this nomination that matched the inquiry done by the Washington Times, this insupportable nomination and confirmation never would have passed.
The fox is now truly back in the chicken coop.
Another victory for the private prison industry here ! Bravo correction institutions for fun and profit ! Big victory for you guys ! Now the mouse is watching the cheese.