Staff raise alarm on ‘toxic’ workplace at county jail
The union representing the roughly 50 employees at Washington County jail made public a litany of complaints about the facility administration and county officials Saturday, citing problems members say jeopardize the safety of staff and inmates alike.
“Washington County has not facilitated a safe and secure work environment, but has promoted a toxic, unsafe environment for staff and inmates housed at this facility,” the correctional staff said in a letter dated Nov. 8 and addressed to county officials.
The National Correctional Employees Union released the five-page letter – whose authors called it a “grave expression of our VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE” in the county’s human resources department, prison board and jail administration – in an email to local media outlets Saturday. In one part of the letter, employees said understaffing forced corrections officers and other staff to work a total of 1,100 overtime shifts totaling about 8,800 hours this year alone.
“Staff is being mandated for numerous shifts within the same week in addition to their regularly scheduled hours causing exhaustion and fatigue,” the letter read. “As well as mental stress and stresses on their family and home lives. This results in safety and security risks within the facility as well.”
About 360 inmates are housed at the jail.
The union members pointed to high turnover because of the grueling schedule, plus what they characterized as a slowness by the county to follow through on new hires to fill vacancies.
The letter also said there is no assigned female support officer, so the “female housing unit (is) left physically unattended by a corrections officer any time the facility needs a female officer to perform duties elsewhere in the facility.”
Reached by phone, Joseph Fellencer, labor representative for the jail workers’ bargaining unit, said the staff tried collectively to discuss these problems with Warden Edward Strawn, but Fellencer said he refused.
“I believe he was willing to meet with them individually, but he wasn’t willing to meet with them as a group,” Fellencer said.
Jail staff were previously represented for years by the Teamsters. A majority of members voted in February to certify the NCEU as representing them instead. Fellencer said members made the switch because they weren’t satisfied with the Teamsters’ representation.
There is a “disconnect between the county administration and the prison administration,” Fellencer said.
For example, the letter cited testimony Strawn recently gave at an arbitration hearing related to promotions. Asked about a job posting he’d issued, he “stated that he was unaware of what the job posting listed as necessary qualifications/requirements.”
Instead, Strawn allegedly said under oath “he simply requests the posting from the (county’s) Human Resources Department and once received he just posts it not knowing what it even says,” according to the letter.
Phone calls made to the facility’s administrative offices were unanswered when a reporter attempted to reach officials late Saturday afternoon.
County Commission Chairman Larry Maggi acknowledged there are currently “10 to 13” openings in the jail roster. It also takes time to train new officers and conduct background checks on them. He added officers frequently move on to other jobs.
Maggi said the representatives for the union and county are in ongoing negotiations over a new contract for jail staff. The previous one expired Dec. 31.
“Those are all issues that are being addressed with the new union now,” Maggi said of the letter. “Obviously, with the new representation, it’s all starting again.”
Fellencer said the letter has “nothing to do with” the contract negotiations.
“This is just a situation that needed to be addressed from the standpoint of the employees,” he said.