Yesterday, I went to jail again.
I spent nearly three hours there, touring the facilities with a number of staff members.
I went to phase I and II of the old jail, and then we walked through the new facility. All over it.
Given the recent focus on safety, facility, and staffing issues--I felt it was past time to go and look over the situation again, firsthand.
From mold growing on walls in multiple rooms, to cracked floors leaking and fixtures coming out of the walls, to cracked windows that have gone unreplaced, to a rustic and odd "McGuyver" roof leak system that is failing in multiple rooms, to a sink that has had the hot water running, I am told, nonstop for a year that goes unrepaired.
"Tickets are put in to maintenance, then they are closed and come back as 'having been repaired' --yet the problems are not fixed" stated one of the escorts when I asked why these issues had not been addressed by maintenance crews.
The only good news is that the worst areas that I saw, with the worst of the worst conditions, are not currently occupied by staff or prisoners. But there are areas occupied that are substandard, borderline unacceptable.
In our brand new, $142 Million Dollar jail--one of the three elevators is already inoperable, the pipes are leaking like a sieve, and we have significant issues already brewing that are apparently not being fixed. This cannot be the course we take, lest we have what we now see with our last facility.
But it isn't that simple.
We don't have that luxury as we simply have too many prisoners; our new correctional facility cannot accommodate the 1500 or so prisoners we have day in and day out. It can hold just over half of that number.
We have a brand new jail that has several pods complete and ready for use--but due to manpower shortages, they are not being utilized currently. You see, at the old jail the efficiency with respect to guard to prisoner ratio was and is better than twice as good juxtaposed with the new facility--meaning the old jail takes less staff to operate than the new, modern, expensive facility.
And that is diametrically opposed to what the board members were told as the new facility was being designed. All of us requested design for efficiency--less staff and fewer FTE's to operate. We all wanted efficiency. What we got was, well, less than half as efficient as the OLD jail. More on that later in a follow on post.
So who is to blame for this cascade to facility failure? The easy targets would be the current staff and administration.
But they inherited a problem that has been percolating for, apparently, 3-4 decades. Staff turnover and attrition has exacerbated the problem over the last 10 years. It has festered.
So the blame has to fall on us--the elected commissioners. We have to own it.
And we will.
That is going to start with some frank, behind the scenes conversations with staff about our maintenance program at this
facility over the last 20 years. Why have tickets been allowed to be closed when the problems at issue are not solved? Who allowed this? We can spend a fortune in taxpayer money on building something nice--but if it is not maintained properly it will not last and will end up costing more in the long run. Someone will have to provide me an explanation about this maintenance ticket churning.
And then it is going to require an action plan to fix these issues immediately and appropriately so that the usable portions of our large and aging facilities can be occupied once again. And so that areas that are currently occupied but are in a deplorable state of repair can be, at a minimum, remediated to a point where occupation of such spaces isn't akin to a punishment of our staff.
I'm meeting with staff tomorrow and this topic will be an intense area of my focus going forward.
more to follow.
19 comments:
Oh, I'm sure those worst areas were not occupied while you were there Jeff. God knows where they stashed those prisoners to present you the safer version of hell on earth.
Over the last three years, I have pled with the commission publicly on numerous occasions to
FIGURE OUT WHAT IN THE HELL IS GOING ON IN THAT JAIL.
Many times it has been reiterated that raw sewage flows over cell floors, that prisoners do not have soup or toilet paper, that they are getting moldy food, that they are not receiving proper medical care, and that they were refused proper covid measures including even being tested for it.
Recently, it's not clear how the disaster with the software and the illegal, unconstitutional handling of prisoner visits from their attorneys went so quiet. But you can bet some day the County is going to have a real hornet's nest to deal with in its overall IT picture what whatever has been implemented off some of those ridiculous shell company buys. Not to mention that the corrections departments have never been properly and completely integrated into the County's IT system, which was, at least it was a couple of years ago, providing an excuse to run things on paper that then gets conveniently lost. Just like it sounds like--woops!--not only important video and metadata records have been lost, but they can't find their way to the bleach closet with a map, either. Or maybe they just lost the bleach that's supposed to go in the closets. Deplorable.
When I say better late than never, I don't mean that in a facetious way. It really IS better that this tour finally took place than not at all, even if so much unnecessary suffering on the parts of staff and inmates could have been forestalled if this would have happened a couple of years ago. Cause anybody looking at those photos can tell that is the mold of YEARS growing on those walls. As somebody with horrible mold allergies, I cannot imagine what it is like to be forced to work and live in those inhumane conditions.
Powell is either in over his head, doesn't care, or both. He has lied so many times about the conditions of the jail and what is going on in there, I don't know how the Board can possibly expect Wes Moreno to rectify all this by just having a jaw and a chat on union concerns. This thing is so far beyond union concerns that it ought to result in a follow-up investigation from the DOJ about how things have really been running in there the last few years.
Or just open up the old one that was stayed pending the construction of the new facility.. Whatever works.
Thank you for getting in there and having the honesty to post publicly about it, Commissioner Bergosh. Much respect for you in doing that.
ps. That was supposed to be "soap," not "soup." Actually, many days some prisoners have neither. I've heard moldy bread is a pretty popular course up there. And looking at these pictures, who is going to say that notion is beyond the pale. I've heard that from too many people who have been in there to doubt its truth.
This is what happens when county departments are not adequately funded for many years, not hard to figure out.
I am not surprised one bit by what I see in the pictures of the condition of the jail. As expected under the BCC command conditions have gotten worse. One thing for certain, if the Commissioners and senior level management were uninformed of the condition before this tour, then Director Powell should be terminated as he has failed in his duties, both to the BCC, the jail employees and to those that are incarcerated.
As a citizen who routinely scrolls thru the numerous online databases for Escambia County, you might be surprised how many "work orders" are closed out indicating the work was completed without anything being done.
There has to be a better way to close out work orders so citizens can understand why no work was done - such as private road not county, or state road - not county, or Referred to Other Agency and identify which agency the complaint was referred so complainants can follow-up with the referred agency.
If its sidewalk projects or other requested works such as road paving etc providing a referral to a department or person for future follow-up versus indicating "work order complete".
Prisoners are housed there, therefore it is "their house". Give them a rag and a bucket, some free paint, a valve repair kit for the sink and so on.
As a Correctional Officer at Escambia County Jail, I am content that this information has been made public and the public is taking notice. However, DO NOT be fooled. This information and these pictures only scratch the surface of the issues that are presented inside the jail on a daily bases. There are 3 inmates to a cell that are only designed for 2, some cell doors throughout the facility do not function properly allowing inmates to leave their cells whenever their heart desires (which is a major safety concern for inmates and staff alike), the inmate population is beginning to notice we are short staffed leading to a rise in inmate on inmate and inmate on staff violence, and the mold you speak of, we breathe in for 12 to 18 hours at a time, and inmates live in, causing numerous health issues. Rumor has it the County Commissioners want to raise base pay to $20.00 an hour and for the officers who have been in the facility working through these issues for the last 5 years they will get mere pennies to raise them to the $20.00 base pay, whereas a new hire would automatically recieve $20.00 an hour and a $2000.00 sign on bonus. The only thing this will cause is those of us that have been here enduring and embracing "the suck", so to speak, to leave. How is giving the officers who have put in 5+ years of service the same pay as an officer that hasn't even worked a full shift even a question? If the rumor is true then it will open the flood gates to even more staff leaving. Less staff means even worse conditions for the inmates. Even if the county manages to replace the staff that is leaving, they cannot replace experience, which in turn makes conditions worse for the staff that stays and the inmates that reside in the jail.
Santa Rosa County Jail, Okaloosa County Jail (ran by the County Commissioners), and Walton County Jail all house less inmates, less violent inmates, have adequate staffing, and pay more than Escambia County Jail. It will continue to be difficult to increase staffing until pay increases to a competitive rate with the counties within a hour drive time of Escambia County. Santa Rosa, for example, currently has a wait-list of applicants to be hired at their facility.
It is time for change at the Escambia County Jail. We need staff, we need pay, and we need a long term plan to stay in front of our neighboring counties and the increasing minimum wage to hit $15 an hour in the years to come. With more staffing the inmates will be better cared for and overseen. We will actually be able to manage their requests and concerns in a timely manner, give them a listening ear when they need to vent or talk about troubling issues, give them words of encouragement to better themselves or to make better decisions upon their release from custody. Right now we barely have the staff necessary for the minimum day to day tasks we must perform, even with mandatory overtime and a limit of 6 days of scheduled days off a year. Please hear our cry for change.
This is why they should have built one jail compound. ONE and should have used the superfund site off Palafox and Hickory but when you have people making decisions that clearly don't have clue these are the results you yield! So thankful that I was able to retire before I got hurt. Lord knows the health issues we have as a result of working inside there! My name is Tracey Shubert and I am praying for all the employees who still have to go into that place!
You can’t just give them things of that nature. Inmate create weapons out of things you wouldn’t believe.
BOCC failure Failure to supervise both the conditions at the old facility and construction on the new. Totally inept.
They are freaking criminals!!! Why don't you go around and check on our vets??? See how they live! See if they are doing ok!!!
While these issues are Wwwwaaayyy past due to be handled and the commissioners and upper administration at the jail have failed us all. We all need to also understand that these are inmates. My son was there and had complaints also. About all the maintenance issues, but also about the fact that the inmates were filthy. Cleaning times were set, officers did give them things to clean with but inmates either stole it, used it as a bargaining agent, the pod boss sold it for commissary, or the guys in the pod were to dang lazy to clean. I figured he would complain about food and treatment but no, he complained about the actions or inactions of other inmates in his pod. One time he told me to buy soap because the officers had filled this big metal soap dispenser up 3 times already but the house man would pour it all into his own bottles from the dispensor and sell it to those who needed and had something he wanted.
My son isn't a Saint, he put himself there. But not once did he complain about staff. His complaints were about the other inmates in all three units he was moved too. Breaking stuff, lying to staff, stealing, hoarding, refusing to clean, stopping others from cleaning unless they paid. I told him all the time, inmates will be inmates, you are one. I just was told, they had bleach and a pink cleaner 5gallon buckets replaced daily by officers. But the houseguys refused to let anyone use it unless they got paid or hoarded it all to wash clothes for themselves. I do wonder how the commissioner's had no clue it had gotten this bad. Didn't they have the option to build bigger when this blue jail was built and they said no?? I hope my kids and grandkids stay outta there, especially knowing all this now that Dillion never seen or complained about.
The flipping of operations back and forth from the Sheriff to the BOCC needs to stop.
Its time for our local political entities to finally realize that Escambia County has to operate a jail. It has to be one or the other’s baby. Yes the baby is ugly. Its an ugly baby (jail), but you still have to love it, you still have to take care of it, to nurture it, to keep it healthy.
A Sheriff from a small County once told me “patrol gets you elected; the jail gets you unelected, but we have to do both.”
This means that which ever is operating it, the staffing levels need to be maintained at a reasonable level. A level that allows for safe operations and allows for employees to utilize reasonable amounts of leave that they earn as part of their compensation and benefits package. Since that level is so critically short now, compensation will have to be in higher pay ranges when compared to other local agencies to dig out of this hole. This is what happens when staffing shortages are only dealt with by using short term fixes such as mandatory OT and leave cancelations, etc. Such short term fixes only exacerbate the problem in the long term. The only way to stop that downward spiral, in this labor market, is to be the “pay” leader.
The facilities have always been the BOCC s, and maintenance has always been performed by the BOCC employees who work for Facilities Maintenance. Jails operate 24/7, so they age faster than say an office building, and if they are always overcrowded the wear and tear on the facility is even more severe. That is what you see with both phases of the Main Jail. Main Jail Phase I has always been double bunked. The structure has reached its life span. Hopefully , whatever action is taken to address this issue, it will involve a physical connection to the new jail. Separate facilities create ever increasing staffing demands. Maybe a separate fund needs to be allocated strictly for the maintenance of these new facilities. That is what they do a few Counties over. They created and funded that account using monies collected from housing our inmates.
Mr. Bergosh,
The building maintenance problems speak for themselves, but the staffing and morale issues are hidden from you by Chief Powell and a few of his command staff. Here are a few of the issues that are facts that can easily be proven. The chief came to this county speaking of us being one corrections department that consisted of the jail and the road camp. He has shown favoritism to the road camp by letting them continue to have days of and leave and by allowing them to work overtime whenever they chose to but yet they do not have to help out with the mandatory overtime that the jail staff has to work. At the jail we have had over 150 employees leave in a years' time. That in itself should throw up some red flags. There are not equal disciplinary actions against employees. It's common knowledge that the jail commander and a 1st Lieutenant have had or are having inappropriate relations with female trainees. The amazing staff continues to get the job done with less resources and are being worked to their bones and the chief blows smoke up the commissioner's rear ends by telling them we are comfortable with the staffing. I know some of what I have disclosed are serious allegations, but they can all be easily proven. Why don't you interview some of the senior supervisors and officers and see what they have to say? If you want to solve the problem, then you need to get the real bottom of the barrel.
This is what happens when people have no busy making decisions are in a position to do so! First of all they should have built one jail. ONE, right over there off Palafox and Hickory. The superfund site. One jail, four shifts not eight. I am so thankful that I am no longer working there. Hopefully I don't develop any health issues from the horrible conditions! Praying for those who are still there!
WOW, 150 employees have left in one year??? I'm sure some were not suited for the job but even if you culled 50 bad ones then that is still 100 good employees leaving in a year. Sounds like the starting pay is not a serious problem but management of current employees is! Hey Jeff, keep us posted on what you find out.
A good portion of these people leaving we’re only a few years from retirement. Sad that they were so miserable that they threw away all of the time they’ve put in.
Funny no snarky comments from Herr Bergosh on this topic. Pathetic leadership. This BOCC is so self serving. Hide from any real problems in the county.
Officers at the jail, along with their representatives from the PBA met with Wes Moreno and other county personnel to discuss pay increases to help with the staffing and retention issues at the jail. Mr. Moreno opened up with his "best offer" which the majority in attendance did not agree with. The PBA counter offered to include 6% for jail staff that have been working in the conditions, have been the back bone to the daily functions of the jail and providing the overtime labor for the past few years. The counter offer included this so those individuals would recieve more pay than someone who had never worked a day in the jail that just got hired on. Mr. Moreno went on to turn down the counter offer and revisiting the offer he opened with stating it was the best he could do. However, he and the "Cheif" of corrections, Powell, went on to state that the budget was not an issue they can pay as much for overtime personnel as needed to be done by reallocating money from other budgets in the county. If Mr. Moreno's offer is voted through the jail is going to lose even more staff due to the compression that is going to take place for the bulk of its officers (ones that have been there for 2-5 years). How is it right that those individuals make the same amount as someone who has never set foot in the jail, who has never had an inmate attack them, has never had to come in on their day off for mandatory overtime, who has never been denied countless days of leave due to staff shortage, who has never been told they no longer can take their one day off a month, who has never had to see one of their fellow officers get taken out of the facility via ambulance covered in blood, who has never been told they can't attend career progression classes due to staff shortages, who has never had to go without having a chance to eat during a 12 to 18 hour shift. It isn't fair and is only going to cause more staff to leave. Retention and recruitment has to take place, not just recruitment. Mr. Bergosh you need to be aware of this issue we are now being faced with.
Mr. Bergosh, Thank you for seeing the problems with the jail and taking interest.. We need all the help we can get.. The problem with the moral will not get any better till Chief Powell is gone.. He doesn't care about his employees, he is just out to line his pockets and make his self look good.. Ever since he came here he has tried to make us like Orange County.. We are not that big & we don't have the man power as there.. He even wasted money changing jumpsuit colors, what we had has been working fine all these years..We call ourself Orange County 2 .When we moved into the new jail we had to do a lot of cleaning because it hadn't been done..All the cleaning crews left when we moved .. There hasn't been anyone hired to clean.. The new jail is starting to look bad with all the dirt & stains.. before long it will look like the old jail.. after spending all that money to have something nice... The air doesn't work in our dept, it was burning up when we moved in.They have problems with the toilets flushing everyday..
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