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HOLLIDAYSBURG – A longtime representative of the Pennsylvania Prison Society said Thursday a “staffing problem” at the Blair County Prison is frustrating inmates and corrections officers.
Ernest Fuller, who has represented the society’s Blair County chapter for 24 years, said the situation could become a safety issue for both sides.
“We would encourage you to adequately staff the prison as soon as you could do it,” he told members of the Blair County Prison Board.
Fuller and another member of the Prison Society attended the prison board’s Thursday meeting.
Fuller said his comments stemmed from a recent visit to the prison. Society members go into the prison monthly to meet with the inmates and to determine if there are any issues.
Prison staffing has become a subject that is regularly discussed by the prison board during the past two years. A plan was developed to hire 12 more full-time corrections officers, a move that would cut back on the use of part-time “fill-in” officers. The additional full-time officers, it was said, would bring more stability to the prison staff, reduce staff turnover and the cost of training new officers.
While no prison board members objected to the plan, it has been put on hold while a new labor agreement is negotiated with officers who are represented by the Service Employees International Union.
Fuller took only a few moments to address the prison board, and then the board’s chairman, Sheriff Mitchell Cooper, called for an executive session to discuss discipline problems as well as the labor negotiations.
Commissioner-elect Bruce Erb, representatives of PrimeCare of Harrisburg, the company that provides medical care at the prison, the Prison Society members and more junior members of the prison staff were asked to leave the meeting.
The county’s labor negotiator, attorney Dave Andrews, met with the board and prison management, including Warden Michael M. Johnston, Deputy Warden Marc T. Massucci and Lt. Randy L. Pollock.
While outside the meeting room, Fuller explained the staffing problem as he sees it.
He said there is a lack of supervision.
He said inmates can’t get responses from the staff because there aren’t officers around.
The lack of officers, he said, puts the inmates on edge. Inmates are having trouble getting access to the telephone so they can make calls.
He said inmates are experiencing more lockdown time, and officers aren’t around to bring the inmates books, which is important.
Asked about Fuller’s comment, Johnston said after the meeting more junior officers are getting “mandated” to fill in when there are vacancies. This means the same officers are working long hours, pointing out the labor contract calls for the least senior officers be mandated prior to the more senior staff.
He said it’s the same people “over and over” being mandated.
Negotiations are “ongoing,” Cooper said.
The prison population was at 321 inmates on Thursday.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.