Part 2: Jailer candidates provide thoughts a special UNITE forum

(Editor’s note: Due to the amount of subject matter, this is the second part of a two-part story on the Whitley County UNITE Coalition’s May 5 forum for jailer’s candidates. The first part of the story appeared in the May 7 edition of the News Journal.)

How should money from the Whitley County Detention Center’s commissary fund be spent? How can drugs be better kept out of the jail? What can be done to reduce the recidivism rate for inmates?

These are some of the questions posed to the eight of the 11 candidates running for Whitley County Jailer, who chose to participate in the forum, which was sponsored by the Whitley County UNITE Coalition.

The eight candidates, who attended the forum, included: Russell Smith, Daniel Essek, Sandra Hoke, Melinda Moses, Tommy Hurst, Brian Lawson, Robert Taylor and Shawn Jackson.

Candidates not attending the forum included: Will Leach, Ralph Skidmore and Arnold Gene Young.

Operation UNITE board member Angie Bowling moderated the forum.

Bowling rotated the order in which the candidates were asked a series of nine questions, including the introduction and closing remarks.

Jail commissary fund

(Editor’s note: the jail commissary is the canteen where inmates can go to purchase various items using money that friends and family members deposit into their commissary account.)

Money from the commissary fund is supposed to be used for improvement of the jail’s living conditions or for the betterment of the inmates. If elected, how would you use this money to improve living conditions for the inmates?

Moses noted that the living conditions at the jail were very poor when she worked there with some of the mattresses less than half an inch thick and with holes in them.

The uniforms and shoes were also in bad repair.

“Even though somebody is there that doesn’t mean they need to be treated any less as a person. They need to go outside. They need to have some recreation. It helps with behaviors,” Moses said.

“We cannot house these people like they are dogs.”

Hurst agreed that new mats would be good, but one of his top priorities would be to organize a medical cell so that the jail nurse would only have to go to one or two cells to treat people with medical needs.

“It would centralize people if they had stitches, casts, crutches and so on,” Hurst said.

He would also like to work with the Whitley County Public Library to start a library at the jail.

“An idle mind is not a good thing for anybody. They need more recreation time. Just sitting there idle doesn’t do anything for your self worth,” Hurst added.

Lawson said he would like to use some of the money to place hand sanitizer dispensers in the cells to cut down on germs and staph infections.

“The other thing I would look to do is invest that money in things that are going to teach our inmates and give them work traits, give them something to help them succeed once they leave the Whitley County Detention Center,” Lawson said.

“What can we do to spend that money other than just have cookouts? Let’s invest that money so they are going to get something out of it once they leave the Whitley County Detention Center.”

Taylor said that Department of Corrections policy dictates that the money is only supposed to be used for educational resources or purposes, which covers a broad area.

“That gives you numerous programs that you can supply to the inmates. Whether it be a job or skill or buying bedding and clothing for the inmates,” Taylor said.

“At the jail they use that money other than what it is intended for. That money is supposed to be solely used for the inmates either educational reasons or recreational reasons. Department of Corrections policy also says that inmates are supposed to get three hours of recreation time per week.”

Jackson said he believes the money should be used to boost up a safe and healthy environment for the inmates, including new clothing and mattresses.

“That money should be spent towards the well being of the inmates,” he said.

Jackson said he would like to use part of the funds to expand the jail garden program.

“Instead of paying a salary to a person to oversee the farm and then paying a whole separate salary to use his equipment and someone getting paid a double salary, why not take that money and buy small farm equipment that you need to work a garden. It doesn’t take a really big tractor to work a garden.”

He added that boosting the commissary program would be a great way to cut back on other expenses at the jail.

Smith would like to use the money for computer software to teach vocational programs, such as carpentry.

“If they have a trade, they can be healthy when they get out so they aren’t going back to do things that are less healthy for the body,” he said.

He would also spend the funds on things, such as bedding.

Essek agreed that the money should be spent on things, such as blankets, uniforms and the exercise yard.

Essek said he thinks that three hours of recreation time a week is insufficient and he would like to see eight hours of recreation time per day.

Hoke noted that since Moses worked at the jail, the mattresses have been replaced.

“We do keep them in new blankets,” she said.

Recently the jail spent $2,000 on new work shirts for the inmates.

Hoke said that she would like to use part of the money to have a company resurface the shower floors and walls to prevent mold.

She agreed that she would love for the jail to get its own tractor.

Fiscal responsibility

What would be your plans to be fiscally responsible with the taxpayers’ money?

Lawson, Taylor, Smith, Essek, Hoke and Moses all agreed that one of the first things they would do is go over the budget line item by line item looking for ways to trim costs.

Hurst said that the first thing he would do is have Whitley County inmates housed in Whitley County and not spread out across the state.

Hurst said that he recently drove 177 miles to Bowling Green to get an inmate for a court appearance and then had to make the 177-mile trip back. He said it costs about $40 per day to house inmates at other detention centers.
Hurst said people talk about housing state and federal inmates to offset costs.

“You’re not going to offset costs paying another county to house our inmates,” Hurst said. “I would bring our prisoners home. These are people we live with. Those are our neighbors.”

He added Whitley County has the 17th largest court caseload in the state, which means a lot of repeat offenders.

About 42 percent of people, who graduate from drug court don’t commit another felony offense and Hurst said he would like to implement a re-entry program to see if similar results can be put into place.

Lawson said he would implement a re-entry program to cut down on recidivism, and even a 5 percent success rate would save the county thousands of dollars over a period of years.

Lawson would also look for other ways to generate revenue outside of what has already been done.

“The litter abatement program is a great program, but when we take garbage from the side of the highway, we ought to take it to a recycling center and sift through it and recycle what we can that will cut down on your haulage fee,” and be good for the environment, he added.

Taylor said that he would borrow some ideas from measures used by the federal prisons.

For instance, the feds charge inmates a fee to see the prison nurse.

“Maybe that would offset some of the medical costs,” he said.

In addition, the federal prison recycles cans and plastic as a way of generating revenue. Taylor said he’s not sure what can do done regarding that at the county level.

Jackson cited the Laurel County Detention Center as a good example of a jail that has cut expenses.

While it can’t happen over night here, Jackson said that it can happen if Whitley County gets the right jailer in place and the right team at the jail to move the county in that direction.

Jackson said he would do renovations at the jail by using money generated from the commissary fund to buy supplies and then let the inmates provide the labor.

Essek said his first priority would be to do an audit at the jail to see where the “waste, fraud and abuse’ are.

One of his top priorities would be getting a tractor for the jail farm.

“My main deal would be to return as much money back to the county as we possibly can,” Essek added.

Hoke said that as far as she knows, there are only two county inmates, who are not housed at the Whitley County Detention Center.

“That is basically for their own safety. There may be more. I can just think of the two,” Hoke said.

She added that when a county inmate is sent to another jail, such as Laurel County, then Whitley County would try to house a Laurel County prisoner to offset the costs.

One area she would try to save money is through overtime.

“We have been doing a whole lot better with that,” she said.

She said overtime does get out of hand sometimes because it is difficult to find people willing to work.

She agreed that expanding the jail’s recycling program sounded like a good idea and that she had already spoken to someone about it.

Moses said she believes that the jail’s medical provider didn’t pay the last settlement over an inmate death at the jail. Instead, the jailer and his staff using taxpayer money paid it.

“The amount of money we pay for medical we are saying we need that to cover us, that did not happen,” Moses said. “Of course, private vehicles being driven, I don’t think that needs to be happening. I think that would be a savings there.”

Keeping out drugs

What are your plans to keep drugs out of the jail?

The candidates generally agreed that drugs and other contraband are brought into the jail through one of four ways.

The inmates bring it into the jail, as they are booked. Work release prisoners bring it back into the jail. Visitors hide it somewhere and a trustee picks it up while they are cleaning and delivers it to another inmate. Jail guards or a staff member deliver it to inmates.

Lawson said that better supervision and criminally prosecuting those responsible are two key elements.

“You come in with strong leadership and drug test everyone,” Lawson said. “If contraband is found, it won’t be flushed. Local law enforcement will be contacted.

“You will be charged. You will be indicted for promoting contraband regardless of whether you are an inmate, an employee or myself.”

Taylor said you start off by drug testing all employees.

During processing, you physically search all inmates, have them remove all their clothing and give them new clothing, he said.

“On the work details, your job is to supervise those inmates. If you are sitting in your truck talking on the telephone and smoking your cigarette while the inmates are off working then you don’t know what they are doing.”

Inmates on work release details should be searched before they leave the jail for work and when they return to the jail, Taylor said.

“You will have staff that will get comprised either by financial situations or by inmates pressuring them. It will happen. You will just have to let them go,” he added.

Jackson said that it all falls back to the jailer surrounding himself with good people.

Jackson said that all employees would be drug tested including him.

He would also conduct background screenings of employees similar to what the state police do but not as extensively.

“If anything on their record includes any type of drug offense or theft related charge then I think that should disqualify them from working in the facility if they were convicted,” Jackson said.

Jackson said he would also make sure that employees were properly trained to do thorough searches, including work release supervisors.

Smith said he would conduct background checks on all employees and keep a close watch over them.

Work release inmates would change clothes back into a different uniform or jumpsuit when they returned to the jail and would be searched thoroughly.

Essek said he would institute policies where inmates, who come back from work detail, are searched, even if they only went out to the parking lot to pick up trash.

He would also randomly search the inmates’ quarters.

“I am going to find out how it is being done,” he said.

People caught bringing drugs into the facility will automatically be indicted, Essek said.

“They will think twice about it. What I want them to do is think twice, three and four times about it. I want them to think so hard that they don’t want to do it again,” he added.

Hoke said that there are hardly ever any contact visits with inmates and if she is elected there won’t be any.

“We do what we can to prevent it,” she said.

Work release inmates change into blue jeans before they leave the jail to work.

“When they come back they are strip searched and they change back into their orange uniforms and they go back into their cell. They still get it in regardless of what we do,” Hoke added.

She said that all staff members are drug tested when they are hired and that random drug tests are done on everyone, including her.

Moses said that it all goes back to “leadership, training and education.”

Hurst said that as far as he knows, every county employee is drug tested and if he is elected that would continue for jail employees.

“Training, policy and procedure with your staff is of the upmost importance so they know what to look for,” Hurst said.
Hurst said that he would only use inmates as trustees if they had less than two years left on their sentence.

“That way if they get caught, you prosecute them for promoting contraband, which adds five years to their sentence. It will stop a lot of that if you actually prosecute if they are caught doing that,” he added.

Reducing recidivism

The overall goal of House Bill 463 is to lower the recidivism rate for repeat offenders by 5 percent by 2017 by increasing usage of evidence based program options for offenders in the jail. What programs do you intend to implement to reach this goal?

Nearly all of the candidates cited the need for a re-entry program at the jail.

Taylor noted that Whitley County has a high rate of repeat offenders.

He would start off with trying to get the inmates to get a GED, if they didn’t already have a diploma.

“You have to have a GED to be able to get a job,” he said.

Second, he would try to teach the inmates some computer skills plus trade skills, such as carpentry, auto bodywork or manual labor.

In addition, classes offering family skills would also be important.

“You have a lot of problems with either abuse or neglect,” Taylor said. “Everyone of these programs that I have suggested would benefit not only the people in the community but the inmate as well.”

Jackson said that the new law was aggravating when it first went into effect when he was a police officer, but he acknowledges that it has some good points in it even though it hasn’t save the state as much money as initially planned.

One of the key parts of the re-entry program needs to be the substance abuse, Jackson said.

He encouraged whoever wins the jailer’s race to look at how Laurel County has modeled its re-entry program.

Jackson said he would also broaden ministry programs at the jail and faith-based programs there.

“I believe re-entry is the most important program at this time,” he added.

Smith said that if there is nothing done to rehabilitate or educate the inmates then they are probably going to come back.

“If they don’t’ have something with a career to help them when they get out they are going to go right back to their same old habits,” he added.

Essek said if the inmates have substance abuse or educational problems then that needs to be dealt with.

He is in favor of the jail offering GED classes, substance abuse training and ethics training.

“There is a reason why they are committing the crimes they are committing. We need to get to the root causes of it and address the problems,” Essek said.

Another problem is a lack of good paying jobs in Whitley County and the lure of big money in drugs, he added.

Hoke said that she had already spoken to a couple of other jails across the state about how they have done their re-entry programs.

She has already talked to a woman about meeting with the inmates to teach them about family life skills.

Hoke said that there is already a GED program in place for both male and female inmates.

She cautioned that the program is voluntary and there is no way to force the inmates to do it.

“It is offered to them. It is their choice. If we could make them do it, we would,” Hoke added.

The inmates already have church services five days a week and every inmate has a bible unless it has been removed because they use it to smoke dried peas, Hoke noted.

Moses said that the re-entry program is a “must.”

She suggested modeling any program that Whitley County does after the one Laurel County already has in place.

Hurst noted that Whitley County has the 17th busiest docket out of the 120 counties because a lot of the same people are committing crimes over and over again.

He said that the re-entry program needs to cover several areas; including helping the inmates get a diploma

The program should also help them get medical coverage set up for when they leave the jail, and teach several classes dealing with subjects, such as parenting classes, anger management and budgeting.

Hurst said these are skills that most people learned as children or in school, but skills that a lot of people didn’t.

“We can offer so many things to them and show them another life style and give them hope,” Hurst added.

Lawson said that the first thing he would do is offer classes to inmates.

“These people are our neighbors, our fellow church members, the people we are going to see at Wal-Mart. No one there is serving a life sentence. They are all coming back here,” he added.

“We need to offer them the skills to make them the most productive that they can be when they return to society.”
Classes that need to be taught to inmates include life skills, how to fill out job applications, substance abuse classes, and 12-step programs, Lawson said.

Lawson added that he also wants to be active and go out and educate youth promoting the importance of what a good education can do for them.

Recidivism factors

House Bill 463 also notes several issues that put offenders at risk for reoffending. Two of those factors are lack of employment and lack of education. As jailer, how would you address these issues to help lower the recidivism rates in the Whitley County Detention Center?

Jackson said that the re-entry program has to be not just about drug counseling but preparing individuals to go back into communities and be productive. Things the re-entry program should cover include GED classes, substance abuse counseling, parenting skills and marital counseling among others.

When they are released the inmates should be put in touch with local job shops that can refer them to places, which are hiring employees.

“We want our people in our community making themselves productive to society again. You have to compile a team. One person can’t do it,” Jackson said.

Smith said that the jail has to help teach the inmates the difference between right and wrong.

“We can show them there is a better way,” he said.

Smith added that it would help to show the inmates “what the good Lord” is about.

Essek said he would offer GED classes to inmates, who don’t have a high school diploma and college opportunity for others through online classes and colleges.

“While they are in jail, they have time,” he said.

Essek said he would love to work with city leaders to attract new businesses to the area. He would also like to work with several employers to help the inmates get good paying jobs when they are released.

Hoke said that education and treatment programs are vital to overcoming the problems of lack of employment and education.

“It all goes back to re-entry,” she said.

Hoke added that checking with job shops to see what jobs are available for inmates about to be released is also important.
Moses said that re-entry programs are a must; but one of the problems is that the community won’t accept inmates once they have been released from custody.

“The community will have to be educated that they are coming out of the jail but they completed these programs,” Moses said. “We need to educate the community and tell them this person has made a change.”

She added that if an inmate has been educated, they would walk out of jail a better person.

Hurst said that because of the grip that drugs have on a person’s mind and body, the inmates have to have help and support when they get out of jail.

Hurst said that many inmates need to go see drug counselors once they are released from jail, and society has to do its part while the inmate is in jail.

Hurst said he would work to see that there are mentors in the community, who can help the inmates once they are released.
He would also educate them on available jobs when they are released from jail.

Lawson said that there will always be repeat offenders, but he thinks through proper leadership he can set up programs at the jail to keep inmates busy bettering themselves so that when they get out of jail they won’t want to come back.

Lawson said his staff would conduct exit interviews with inmates being released and would try to help them get jobs when they get out.

He would also educate the inmates’ families about the signs of relapse for drug addicts.

“Talk to the inmate and really encourage him to find new friends and a new environment once he exits the detention center,” Lawson said.

“If he goes back to the same people that he was running around with when he got incarcerated, then he is probably going to accept the same result.”

Taylor said that recidivism is a big problem in Whitley County and you have to give inmates an avenue so they don’t want to come back to jail.

He said some habitual offenders do stuff intentionally in order to come back to jail because it is “the only life they know.”

Taylor said he would introduce drug treatment programs, which would help reduce both inmate misconduct and relapses.

“If you can help one inmate per day, then you made a change in that inmate’s life,” he added.

Civil service protections

Do you believe in civil service protection for employees to insulate them from the results of elections?

All eight candidates were generally in favor of civil service protection for employees, who are doing their jobs properly. Most expressed some reservations wanting the ability to terminate employees, who they believe haven’t done their jobs properly or couldn’t be trusted.

Jackson was the only candidate, whose answer differed significantly.

"Do I believe in civil service to protect employees? Absolutely. You’re talking to somebody right here, who really believes in it knowing from experience here recently," said Jackson, who was fired from the sheriff’s department earlier this year.

"I believe in civil service but is there anybody in this room really wanting to keep an employee if they are elected to an office if that person has just sat and called them everything but good things?"

Jackson said he doesn’t forsee civil service ever happening in Whitley County.