Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Wyatt spokesman Dante Bellini Jr. said the internal investigation began shortly after Ng's death, and examined Ng's care while housed at the facility between July 3 and Aug. 1, 2008. It is separate from an investigation by the Office of Professional Responsibility of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Washington.

Last month, ICE abruptly removed all 153 immigrant detainees from Wyatt and transferred them to five other states, as a team of investigators from its Washington headquarters and elsewhere arrived to investigate Ng's death. That Dec. 8 mass transfer marked at least the third time since 2007 that ICE has moved all detainees out of a facility after a highly publicized in-custody death.

Bellini said, "We believe that ICE has just completed their investigation, but heretofore they have not offered a disposition on what status of detainees returning to Wyatt is, or are."

ICE regional spokesman Michael W. Gilhooly said that ICE "has referred the case of Mr. Ng to the ICE Office of Professional Responsibility, and beyond that we cannot comment."

MEANWHILE, the Wyatt has begun "across-the-board cuts" that include layoffs, the elimination of prisoner programs, and a freeze on new hires in the months ahead unless the prison gets an influx of new detainees.

The loss of immigrant detainees is costing the prison about $100,000 a week and officials have been forced to reduce expenses. That has led to this week's layoffs and cuts in services.

Bellini, the Wyatt spokesman, refused to provide any specifics about how many of the prison's staff of 204 administrators, guards and support staff have lost their jobs, which programs have been cut or how much the facility hopes to save each week.

The Providence Journal has learned that two top officials, including an associate warden, were let go this week. Their combined annual salaries were more than $100,000.

Others may be gone by week's end.

"We have put into place the contingency plan," Bellini said. "We still don't know what the final look of this is going to be."

Bellini said that those who have been laid off or may lose their jobs through the contingency plan have nothing to do with the seven staff members facing disciplinary action stemming from the internal investigation into the Ng's death.

The action could have a crippling impact on Wyatt, which is reimbursed about $100 a day for each prisoner housed there.

As of today, there were 512 prisoners in Wyatt, about 150 to 200 less than its normal population in recent years. Bellini said that the prison also has shut down two of its 12 pods. Each of them houses up to 100 inmates.

The cuts are also bad news for Central Falls, the financially-strapped city that covers one-square mile.

According to city tax records, Wyatt paid Central Falls $504,656 in lieu of taxes in fiscal year 2008. That was more than three times what any commercial property paid in taxes. Fewer prisoners means that the city will get fewer dollars.