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U.S. NEWS Saturday 28 September 2019
APNewsBreak: Cause of deadly

boat fire still a mystery

By STEFANIE DAZIO official, who was not autho- said there is no indication
Associated Press rized to release the infor- the fire was arson.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — In- mation publicly and spoke In the meantime, the Coast
vestigators completed a to The Associated Press on Guard, FBI and U.S. attor-
two-week examination of condition of anonymity. ney’s office in Los Ange-
the charred wreckage of Pieces of the boat have les are leading a criminal
a scuba diving boat and been sent to labs for ad- probe, and the National
could not determine what ditional testing, and inves- Transportation Safety Board
ignited the fire that killed tigators are poring through is investigating safety issues. In this Sept. 12, 2019, file photo, the burned hull of the dive boat
34 people off the Southern hundreds of documents Coast Guard rules require Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off
California coast, a law en- seized from the boat’s op- a “roving” night watch, Santa Cruz Island, Calif.
forcement official said Fri- erator, Truth Aquatics Inc., but investigators have said Associated Press
day.The boat, named Con- the official said. Some parts the captain and four crew vestigators have said. Any cause could play a role in
ception, was anchored just of the boat washed away members were asleep on criminal charges would lawsuits and the owner’s li-
off Santa Cruz Island when when it was submerged. the upper deck when the likely involve an obscure ability. Failing to determine
it caught fire and sank ear- Carlos Canino, special fire broke out around 3 a.m. federal law known as the what sparked the blaze
ly on Sept. 2. It was raised agent in charge of the and quickly swept through seaman’s manslaughter could make it difficult to
and brought to Port Huen- ATF’s Los Angeles office, the boat. The 33 passengers statute. It only requires prove if a boat owner was
eme, a naval base north- said there’s no target date and a deckhand sleeping showing negligence or that negligent.
west of Los Angeles, where for completing the investi- below deck during a three- the captain or crew com- “If the best experts in the
specially trained teams gation. day scuba diving excursion mitted misconduct or ne- world can’t determine the
from the FBI and Bureau of “We don’t put a time limit were trapped and died. glected their duties. That cause or origin of the fire,
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms on it,” he said. “That all de- The crew members tried means an inability to deter- then how’s the owner sup-
and Explosives tried to fig- pends on the science and to rescue people but were mine the fire’s exact cause posed to know?” maritime
ure out what sparked the the evidence.” driven back by the flames may not affect the criminal lawyer James Mercante
blaze. The cause ultimately will and abandoned ship, in- case. But an undetermined said. q
They completed their work be ruled as accidental, in-
there without finding the cendiary — meaning it was
cause, but the investiga- deliberately set — or unde-
tion will continue, said the termined. Authorities have

Private prison company

to house non-US citizens

in Michigan

DETROIT (AP) — A private prison company in northern
Michigan said it can begin Tuesday to house non-U.S. citi-
zens convicted of federal crimes.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons in May granted GEO Group
Inc. a 10-year contract to house up to 1,800 adult inmates
at its North Lake Correction Facility in Baldwin village,
which is 240 miles (386 kilometers) northwest of Detroit.
The prison is different than immigration detention centers
that hold people accused of entering the country illegal-
ly. Instead they hold people convicted of crimes, includ-
ing illegal entry. Inmates in Baldwin would typically have
sentences of 90 months or less to serve for nonviolent drug
offenses or re-entry to the country after deportation. They
all face deportation after completing their sentences.
The prison hired 234 people, many of whom are from the
surrounding area. They’re expected to earn between
$35,000 and $76,000.
“A filled bed is a filled bed; it’s profit for GEO and they’re
hiring people,” said Baldwin village president Jim Truxton,
a long-time supporter of the project. “How is it any differ-
ent than GM building a new plant in the Detroit area?”
The Baldwin facility will be one of nearly a dozen private
facilities contracted to house federal non-citizen offend-
ers for the Bureau of Prisons. Housing low-security federal
inmates in private prisons is less costly.
As of April 2017, the cost to house inmates at private sites
averaged $68.19 a day, while housing an inmate in a low-
security federal facility averaged $87.41 a day, the De-
troit News reported. Florida-based GEO Group expects
the contract in Baldwin will to generate roughly $37 mil-
lion a year in incremental annualized revenues. Truxton
said Lake County will also reap some financial benefits. q