One step from disaster: COs say current prison is hazardous
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Because of overcrowding, inmates often times are forced to find sleeping space on the floor of their cell block. The most dangerous inmates are housed in the general population, because there is nowhere separate to house them.
Roberto M. Esquivel|Herald-Standard
Non-violent inmates are housed in a makeshift cell during a period of overcrowding at the Fayette County Prison.
An inmate demonstrates how easily a security video cable can be reached and pulled from its position.“We have no security, nothing like at the state level,” said one officer. “They refer to our facility as ‘gladiator school’.”
A baker needs an oven to bake, a pilot needs an airplane to fly, a doctor needs medicine to treat patients.
And a corrections officer needs a secure jail to protect citizens from criminals.
In its current condition, the Fayette County Prison doesn’t accomplish that, said several corrections officers (COs) who work there.
Five COs recently discussed the condition of the prison and what it means for the public’s safety, and their safety, with the Herald-Standard. Fearing their candid responses may jeopardize their jobs, they spoke under the condition of anonymity.
Protecting us from them
“The general public doesn’t understand what we do,” said one officer. “We keep the nightmares from coming to your door.”
Behind the walls of the prison are inmates accused of brutally beating a woman to death and sexually assaulting her, breaking into a woman’s house and stabbing her to death, conspiring to slice a man’s throat after a party, and other heinous acts.
The county lockup houses inmates awaiting trial for assaulting guards at the state’s Luzerne Township prison, and death row inmates brought to the county for various court hearings. The officers say those inmates have nothing to lose, and they are eagerly looking for ways to get out.
The most dangerous inmates are housed in the general population, because there is nowhere separate to house them.
“We know we’re in a high risk job,” said a CO, “but we also understand that there are people in power who can build a place that protects us.”
Responding to those who object to the projected cost of building a new prison according to the plan that Commissioners Vince Zapotosky and Angela Zimmerlink voted to table in August, one CO said, “They’re putting a monetary value on our lives.”
Security
The officers belong to United Mine Workers Association local 9113, and UMWA International District 2 representative Casey Mullooly joined the discussion to support them and talk about his perspective, having worked in the Westmoreland County Jail for 13 years.
Mullooly identified problems with both the security and location of the current jail in Uniontown.
“The control room is an insane breach of security policy,” he said. He called the control room the “sacred place” of any prison, because it contains the equipment to monitor the flow of traffic through the building and the emergency panel to lock and unlock certain parts of the facility. Mullooly said in a standard control room, no two doors would be open at the same time, and inmates would never have access.
In the county prison, the control room is a pass-through from the side of the building that houses all the inmates to the side where the kitchen, infirmary and administrative offices are. Inmates routinely pass from one side to the other, as does a steady stream of staff.
“Our control room has access to the kitchen where there are knives,” one CO pointed out.
The officers who patrol the range have no personal protection beyond rubber gloves. The COs reported instances in the past in which officers have been stabbed, taken hostage, handcuffed to the bars while inmates tried to escape.
“We have no security, nothing like at the state level,” said one officer. “They refer to our facility as ‘gladiator school’.”
Add contraband to the scenario, and the danger level for COs and inmates increases, the officers said.
According to one officer, “The caliber of inmates is really different now.” Over the past few years, she said, there’s been an uptick in assaults within the jail, and more knives are being secreted in.
The officers said inmates know there’s no separating violent criminals from the others, and that’s part of why more weapons are coming in.
“The problem with your facility is you have no perimeter,” said Mullooly. In Westmoreland County, the jail sits on a hill, away from town, he said. When officers see someone milling around the outside of the building, something is wrong, he explained.
With the county prison being located in the heart of Uniontown, people can walk close enough to touch the building. And if they’re close enough to touch it, they’re close enough to throw contraband over the wall into the yard area, officers said. COs said they’ve seen all manner of clever ways to get items through open windows or holes people have bored through the century-old mortar joints and window casings.
“As the problem continues, the inmates get smarter,” Mullooly said. “They will figure out how to bring in worse contraband.”
Maintenance
The aging mortar joints aren’t the building’s only weakness. The plumbing backs up on a weekly basis, the COs reported.
“For two or three hours a day we walk through human waste to do our rounds,” said one officer.
Inmates flush anything they can get their hands on through pipes that were never meant to accommodate jumpsuits, mattress stuffing and garbage. When the plumbing backs up, the COs said sewage shoots like a geyser from the toilets in the cells, covering the bunks and spreading out across the entire floor.
The water to all the ranges has to be turned off in order to deal with plumbing issues, leaving inmates frustrated and angry about the accumulating waste in their toilets. Officers say inmates then scoop out the waste and throw it. In a modern facility, solid doors protect COs from those types of assaults, but in the county jail, inmates are able to throw bodily fluid through the bars.
“Am I going to contract a disease that I might take home to my family?” the officers wonder.
In Westmoreland County, Mullooly said, there are seven maintenance workers. In Fayette County, there is one, and he also has other responsibilities like shipping and receiving. When there’s an issue at night or on the weekend, that means either overtime for the maintenance man, or a long wait for a solution.
Support for
a new facility
The officers said it was “a real blow”, learning that the plans for the new prison had been shelved.
“It was just absolute disgust,” said one CO. “And then it was anger. We’re furious.”
The plan that was in place would have protected citizens and COs, who are taxpayers too, the officers pointed out.
“This is a problem you can’t put a Band-Aid on,” Mullooly said. “Zimmerlink’s suggestions are a joke and a slap in the face.”
The COs said they feel the alternative options being considered, which generally include keeping the prison within Uniontown by renovating the old jail and/or adding inmate housing in town, will multiply the security problems and strain on staff rather than reducing them.
“These men and women go to work every day in a facility that is archaic at best,” said Mullooly. “One day there will be a tour group going through that place to say, ‘Look how bad it used to be.’ People are there to earn a wage, they didn’t sign up to be subjected to this.”
Far from asking for deluxe accommodations, the COs say they are hoping for a facility that meets current standards for safety and security, whether it’s the plan developed over two years by the prison working group, or another plan developed from the work sessions currently being conducted twice monthly.
In the plans that already exist, every issue was addressed, the COs said. “And as officers, we were thinking, ‘Finally.’ And they just jerked it away from us.”