Oct
8
Prison hired workers with past problems
Filed Under juvenile justice, privatization | Comments Off
By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Supervisors at the Florida Institute for Girls knowingly hired workers who had histories of violence against inmates and had been fired from previous jobs, prison records show.
Officials for the maximum-security juvenile prison acknowledged Tuesday that they ignored critical warning signs about employees who later hurt the inmates they guarded.
Facing a grand jury investigation this month into chronic problems, including sexual misconduct, rampant violence between inmates and inappropriate restraints, FIG officials maintain that they are carefully screening employees for the suburban West Palm Beach prison.
But personnel records obtained by The Palm Beach Post show employees William Likely Jr. and Marsha Blackwood – fired from FIG last month after a struggle that broke an inmate’s arm – revealed on their applications they had been fired from prior jobs.
Likely told officials he was fired from a similar prison for boys in Pahokee for “alleged child abuse.” Inspector general reports show he lost the job at Sago Palm Academy in September 2000 after he picked up an inmate, dropped him on the floor and then tried to cover up the incident. Likely also acknowledged on his job application that he was fired from a previous job at FIG in September 2001, after he showed up late on eight of 10 consecutive work days.
In August 2002, FIG hired him back.
“That surely should not have happened,” said Isa Diaz, spokeswoman for Premier Behavioral Solutions, the publicly traded Coral Gables company that manages the prison.
Though the prison’s job description form lists “prior experience with at risk/troubled youth” as a requirement for the job, Diaz said Tuesday that is only a preference.
Blackwood listed experience as a parking lot security guard and turnpike toll collector. When FIG officials checked her references, two former bosses said they would not hire her again because she failed to show up for work for up to three days without calling, according to personnel records.
Another employee fired last month after another inmate’s arm was broken had no history of problems. But Treel Crawford also had no experience with troubled youth, working for four years as an administrative assistant for the Army before she was hired at FIG.
When first interviewed about hiring practices in June, former FIG Director Jacqueline Layne said she did not know about Likely’s background – or that fellow employee Jason Crawford had also been fired from Sago Palm Academy for excessive use of force. Crawford later served probation for assaulting an inmate at FIG.
But in fact, officials did know – Crawford was as forthcoming as Likely. He also disclosed on his application that he had been terminated from his last job, records show.
Despite a request from The Post on Aug. 4, the prison has still failed to provide evidence of state-required background checks or reference checks for Larry Curry, who will serve probation for sexual misconduct with an inmate at FIG. Diaz said Tuesday that officials were looking for the records.
“Was anyone home in the personnel office?” asked Frank Kreidler, an attorney who filed a public records suit against the prison on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union last month.
Kreidler, who investigated problems at the boys’ prison in Pahokee several years ago, said many private companies hire employees with “no experience, no training and no education” to save money.
“They are desperate to get warm bodies,” he said.
Officials for the prison counter that their salaries are sufficient – saying they offer benefits, opportunities for advancement and rapid pay increases based on experience.
Premier Behavioral Solutions opened the state’s only maximum-security prison for girls in 2000. Judges statewide sent their most serious offenders. Most have been sexually abused, and many are emotionally disturbed.
From the beginning, the 100-bed prison had trouble with some employees, who start at $8.50 an hour. In some cases, officials acknowledged they weren’t much more mature than the teenagers they were supposed to guard and mentor.
The company says the employees receive extensive training. But not all have past experience, in part because the prison wants to give entry-level workers a chance to get a start in the juvenile justice field, she said.
When Serai Moreland was hired as a FIG youth care worker in October 2000, she was taking calls for roadside assistance at AAA Auto Club South. Before that, she worked as a part-time cashier at Publix and a cafeteria worker for St. Mary’s Medical Center, according to her application.
Moreland got excellent reviews from her supervisors. But two years later, a fellow guard at FIG told the inspector general that she charged into a girl’s room, straddled the girl on the bed and punched her in the face. Moreland told investigators she snapped after the girl hurled feces at her. She was temporarily suspended.
On June 6, 2001, less than a year after the former phone operator took on the state’s most difficult and troubled girls, Moreland wrote a letter to her supervisors asking for help. For two nights in a row, Moreland said, she was the only employee assigned to monitor a cellblock of inmates, one of whom was on suicide watch. All of the other areas had two staff members, she wrote.
“I hate to make a big deal of this, but I feel I was put in a bad situation, that I was not comfortable in. . . . I know both nights went smooth, but if anything would have happen, I would not have any one to back me up,” she wrote.
“I would (have) been by myself.”
Copyright 2003 Palm Beach Newspapers, Inc.
Palm Beach Post (Florida)
October 8, 2003 Wednesday
FINAL EDITION
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