Prison board requires suicide policy training for guards
The Fayette County Prison Board decided Wednesday to make certain all prison employees understand an existing inmate suicide policy instead of disciplining three guards who apparently did not follow the policy during a January incident in which a prisoner may have been contemplating suicide. The board’s decision about the policy and an unrelated personnel issue came after it met privately for nearly two hours in an executive session during the board’s monthly meeting.
About a dozen prison employees were interviewed during a March 18 executive session, and executive sessions were also held during a special meeting on March 11 and the Feb. 26 regular meeting.
Wednesday the board approved overtime paid training on the suicide policy for all prison employees and a requirement that each employee acknowledge that they understand the policy by signing copies that will be placed in their employee files.
In addition, the board agreed to place letters of reprimand in the files of three guards who did not adhere to the policy when they saw an inmate with shoelaces in his hands on Jan. 10.
“Working in a prison is not an easy thing to do,” County Commissioner Sean Cavanagh, who also serves as a prison board member, said. “Mistakes occurred, but the board must send a message.”
He said the guards’ actions did not warrant suspensions or terminations.
Cavanagh said a guard that saw a prisoner with shoelaces, which could possibly have been used to commit suicide. But instead of following policies in such cases, the guard called roving guards for assistance.
The board voted on the letters of reprimand for each guard separately. Fayette County Court Judge John F. Wagner Jr. and County Commissioner Ron Nehls dissented in all three votes.
District Attorney Nancy Vernon and county controller Mark Roberts abstained from voting on a prison guard’s letter.
Cavanaugh and Vernon then collaborated on a second motion, calling for guards to immediately contact their supervisors, summon help and call the suicide “code” whenever an inmate has an implement of death in his possession, makes a direct suicide threat or is in the process of attempting to take his or her own life. The motion makes termination the penalty for violating the policy.
Nehls asked if that was different from the existing policy.
Warden Larry Medlock said is was not.
The motion, which passed unanimously, also requires all employees to undergo training on the policy and sign a dated letter stating they understand the policy. That letter will then be placed in their employee files.
Responding to a question from Wagner, Medlock said additional training would be needed, but it would require off-duty overtime pay for the employees.
Roberts suggested testing employees about their knowledge of the policy to avoid unnecessary overtime pay, but received no support.
Nehls suggested contacting a former state prison official who now works as a consultant, but his idea received no support.
Initially, Cavanagh proposed a motion that would have required guards to call the suicide code if a threat is perceived or if even a joking reference about suicide is made.
Vernon said without a direct suicide threat, a guard could call the code for almost anything.
Inmates can be placed on suicide watches. There are three types of watches and most severe is immobilization with four-point restraints, prison officials said.
An inmate committed suicide in the prison in July 2002.
In an unrelated case, the board said it retroactively reduced prison Lt. Mark Schiffbuaer’s indefinite suspension, which lasted five days, to three days, and compensated him for the two other days.
He was suspended without pay following a Feb. 7 incident in Smithfield in which state police charged him and two others with allegedly threatening a man with a gun and striking him.
However, the charges were dropped at a March 17 preliminary hearing because the victim failed to appear to testify.
Sheriff Gary Brownfield, the prison board chairman, said the three-day suspension was warranted because be displayed “conduct unbecoming of an officer” and he did not report the incident immediately.
In other business, the board approved hiring three part-time guards – Vince Paschke, Mike Pyle and Chris Kozlowski.