The indictments late last week of seven current and former York County Jail corrections officers are particularly disturbing news, on many levels.
As taxpayers, we expect public employees to uphold the trust vested in them to serve the greater public interest and follow the law, and whenever that trust is violated, it leaves a vile taste in our mouths. Since last February, seven of these officers have been under investigation, either for allegedly helping two inmates traffic drugs from within the jail or for looking the other way while others did so. After months of hard work on the part of the York County Sheriff’s Office following a tip-off from a social media photo, the evidence had mounted to the point where the district attorney’s office was able to indict the officers.
Sheriff Maurice Ouellette described the situation as “a young corrections officer being manipulated” into not only allegedly bringing in contraband items such as a cellphone and cigarettes, but also into becoming a drug delivery man for the inmate. The former officer, who is 21, is now facing a felony charge of trafficking prison contraband, as is one other officer. The rest are charged with the misdemeanor of “official oppression,” meaning they allegedly knew what was going on and did nothing to stop it.
We’d like to applaud the sheriff’s office for diligently investigating these allegations and bringing the charges forward. It undoubtedly took a lot of legwork to dig into this situation, and it’s not easy to investigate people who are effectively within your own department. For that, they certainly deserve praise.
Going forward, the YCSO will need to take more precautions with inmate/officer interaction, and improve both its training and hiring processes. Ouellette said the jail is now housing more and more career criminals ”“ people who are gang members and who have served time in higher security facilities ”“ so officers need to know what kind of tricks those types of populations will try, and how to deal with them.
There’s no exact test for whether or not a person is likely to succumb to coercion by an experienced criminal, at least not until they are actually in the situation. A commitment to personal ethics and to doing the right thing on the job has always been subject to threats by outside forces, whether it’s a seasoned inmate or the promise of money or other sought-after rewards.
Extensive, ongoing training and reference checks are important to ensure that the jail staff run a tight ship. Police and corrections officers are held to a higher standard to ensure public trust, so the jail can’t hire just anyone for the position. These people need to be educated about the fact that honor and trustworthiness are key aspects of the job, no less important than the schedules and technical procedures they will need to learn to manage the jail population.
Staffing issues have been an ongoing problem at the jail, not only because of a lack of funding, but also because few people want to be corrections officers, spending their days in a grim environment, minding convicts and keeping them in line. Ouellette recognized that it’s “one of the most challenging duties in law enforcement.” But that’s what makes it even more important that YCSO corrections officers are the best of the best, not just the willing, and have enough people on staff so that officers do not have the opportunity to be alone with inmates long enough to be “manipulated.”
Another big part of making the job attractive is having enough staff on hand so that overtime shifts are not mandatory, but unfortunately, these recent indictments have made the situation even worse. Three of those charged have resigned and the other four are on paid leave, which means the jail is down seven corrections officers. All the while, the four who have not resigned are still drawing a paycheck even though they are not working, so the officers who remain will undoubtedly have to pick up the slack and there will not be extra funds to truly compensate them appropriately. Essentially, taxpayers are funding the accused while they sit at home and await trial, and the trustworthy officers who are still putting in their hours are being forced into extra work hours.
As always with crime, it’s a lose-lose situation, and we hope the new sheriff, who will be elected in November, will soon thereafter be announcing some new reforms aimed at preventing the opportunity for this to happen again.
Ӣ Ӣ Ӣ
Today’s editorial was written by Managing Editor Kristen Schulze Muszynski on behalf of the Journal Tribune Editorial Board. Questions? Comments? Contact Kristen by calling 282-1535, ext. 322, or via email at kristenm@journaltribune.com.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
