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UMWA officials outline deficiencies of aging lockup to prison board

By Patty Yauger pyauger@heraldstandard.Com 5 min read
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A United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) inspection report of the Fayette County Prison facilities indicates a multitude of deficiencies that have yet to be addressed by the prison administration or the county.

Ron Bowersox, UMWA District 2 international representative and safety inspector, advised the county Prison Board on Wednesday that the list of structural and physical issues continue to grow, despite requests to have them addressed.

“I don’t know if all of you have visited that entire prison, but you should,” said Bowersox. “We have eight prisons that we rate, and we can’t rate this one because it is so terrible.”

Bowersox said that he, along with Casey Mullooly, UMWA representative, Chris Bennett, Local 9113 representative, and prison Lt. John Lankey, inspected both the 125-year-old prison and the 12-year-old annex and found non-functioning monitors used by correction officers to watch inmates; rainwater dripping through electrical lighting; extension cords within the reach of inmates and employee showers leaking from one floor to another, among others.

“I don’t think the ventilation system has ever been cleaned,” he said. “You have emergency, secondary escape ways for fire, (but) some of the doors open (and) some don’t.

“Sewage backs up and runs out onto the stairways. There’s no good way to wash your hands. There’s a bar of soap on the water fountain.

“I could go on and on.”

Commissioner Vincent Zapotosky, who along with Commissioners Al Ambrosini and Angela M. Zimmerlink, Sheriff Gary Brownfield, District Attorney Jack Heneks and acting Controller Jeanine Wrona comprise the prison board, said that it has been decades since any action was taken to renovate the main prison.

Brownfield did not attend the meeting.

Donnie Samms UMWA Region 1, at-large international vice-president director, questioned Zapotosky about the time line to address the safety concerns of the correction officers, as a prior plan to construct a new facility has been abandoned.

“It was the plan to build a new prison,” said Samms noting that both Zapotosky and Ambrosini had acknowledged their joint support for a new facility during a UMWA rally in April. “What I’m reading in the newspaper it is no longer the plan.”

Zapotosky said that while the original plan was shelved, it remained his intent to address the deficiencies through renovation and expansion of the current facility.

“We will have a facility that will be modern; that will have upgrades that are conducive for the care and custody of the inmates as well as the care and custody of the guards,” he said.

Ambrosini said that he remains in support of the plan devised by an ad-hoc committee and designed by Crabtree Rohrbaugh and Associates and Sleighter Engineering, that would have inmate housing along with courtrooms, conference and educational areas, and family visitation space in one facility.

Crabtree of Mechanicsburg and Sleighter of Uniontown, were hired by the county to provide an architectural design for the new prison earlier in the year. The project was halted in August when Zapotosky declined to support the advertisement of bids for the construction and joined with Zimmerlink to consider an alternative plan.

Samms said that his primary concern is the safety of the officers that sometimes spend upwards of 16 hours a day in a facility that is not suitable.

“A dog shouldn’t have to be in this place,” he said. “This place is pitiful.

“Our brothers and sisters need something and I don’t care where it is.”

Zapotosky said that he, too, is concerned and will be working to improve the work conditions.

“I promise you, we’re going to build you a prison,” he said. “We’re going to do a good job. We’re advancing on it as we speak.

“You have my commitment that we will start on a prison as soon as we can.”

Zapotosky said that planning is in the works, but he was unable to provide a time line.

“I’m optimistic that they will be able to get everything in place,” he said. “I haven’t been able to sit down and talk with anybody in great detail.

“They are ironing out the specifications. I can’t give you a date, but hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.”

Zapotosky continues to support a “campus setting” with any new construction to be done within close proximity of the current prison.

Along with Zimmerlink, Zapotosky has agreed to take possession of the former Uniontown City Jail property that is near the county courthouse and prison.

Zapotosky has speculated that after the building is rehabilitated, it could house an infirmary, commissary, chapel, and administration offices.

Zimmerlink, meanwhile, said that several of the issues brought forward by the UMWA have been addressed including the purchase and installation of a new monitoring system and that Warden Brian Miller has assured her that the deficiencies noted by the union representatives are being repaired.

“(Miller) said work has been done there for the last three months and that about 30 percent of the issues in the report have been taken care of,” she said in an email following the meeting.

Miller could not be reached for comment as to what matters were no longer of concern.

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