Correctional Officers In Need of Correction: April 2010

[XLFD]

Being a correctional officer is a tough, often thankless job.  Good correctional officers rarely get the recognition of achievement that others who excel in their job, just the grief of having to deal with a bunch of dangerous felons who could seriously injure or kill them if given the opportunity.  For those who go through their career in a professional, accountable manner, we salute you.

 

Lately, we have been discussing the grievance of an inmate at the Oaks Correctional Facility up north.  I personally know a former CO from that facility who I believe is beyond reproach, he has even hinted at a 'bad situation' leading to his decision to leave there.  I have sent an even-handed letter to that facility about the prisoner's grievance and have received no response over the last month. 

 

Lately, we have had a new member join who is solidly behind the CO charged with ethical lapses by the inmate, who he has yet to attribute any rights to.  This member has claimed to be a CO himself, and he feels the inmate is lying, and the CO involved is an upstanding CO.  He may very well be right.  The certainty of this member in the innocence of the CO, had me asking why. 

 

I Googled "Correctional Officer arrested" in Google News and came up with many results.  Here are just a few that came up occuring in April of 2010. 

 

Walton correctional officer arrested for felony drug possession
April 13, 2010 7:31 PM
Daily News
DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — A Walton County correctional officer was arrested for drug possession Monday.

Justin Ryan Tankersley, 23, a correctional officer at the Walton Correctional Institution, was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance after an officer found one Xanax pill and seven Valium pills in a Dodge truck, according to a report from the DeFuniak Springs Police Department.
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Corrections officer arrested for dealing drugs
By Vershal Hogan (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Wednesday, April 14, 2010

VIDALIA — A Concordia Parish correctional officer was arrested and charged Monday with arranging drug deals while at work.
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Ex-Ariz. corrections officer pleads guilty in drug case
by Jolie McCullough - Apr. 21, 2010 06:12 PM
The Arizona Republic .
A former Arizona corrections officer who was accused of trying to give cocaine to an inmate pleaded guilty in a Phoenix federal district court this week, officials said.
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Westminster police officer and corrections officer held in kidnap, rape of woman
Police say Det. Anthony Orban is being held in the alleged attack at gunpoint of a woman at Ontario Mills Mall. Jeff Thomas Jelinek, the corrections officer, is accused of being an accessory.
April 06, 2010|By Paloma Esquivel
An off-duty Westminster police detective was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping a woman at Ontario Mills Mall and raping her at gunpoint, police said Monday.

A corrections officer from the Chino Institution for Men, who was also arrested in connection with the incident, has been booked on suspicion of carjacking and is being held as an accessory to the crime.
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Corrections Officer Arrested
Last Update: 4/13/10 10:07 am  
  In Rensselaer County a corrections officer is under arrest for allegedly threatening someone with a gun.

North Greenbush police arrested 53-year-old Anthony Holston, he's charged with assault and menacing. Police say he assaulted his victim, then allegedly pointed a loaded gun at them.
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Schenectady Corrections Officer Arrested
Posted on Tuesday, 13 of April , 2010 at 5:48 pm
SCHENECTADY—Yet another employee of the Schenectady County Sheriff’s Office is on the other side of the law.

Corrections officer Ross Lackey,27, has been arrested by Niskayuna police after a woman filed a complaint against him for allegedly striking her, putting her in a strangle hold and taking her cell phone to prevent her from calling for help.

Lackey has been charged with two counts of second degree harassment, a violation; and second degree unlawful imprisonment.
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N.J. corrections officer pleads guilty to providing cell phones to Latin Kings inmate
By Sue Epstein
April 12, 2010, 4:17PM

Matt Rainey/The Star-LedgerA photo of the cornerstone of East Jersey State Prison in Woodbridge.WOODBRIDGE -- A corrections officer at East Jersey State Prison in Woodbridge pleaded guilty today in New Brunswick to supplying two cell phones to an inmate who is a member of the Latin Kings street gang.
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Federal Corrections Officer Charged After Polk Deputy's Car Sideswiped

Published: Monday, April 19, 2010 at 11:59 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, April 19, 2010 at 11:59 p.m.
A federal corrections officer was charged with DUI and leaving the scene of an accident after he sideswiped a Polk sheriff's deputy's patrol car on the side of Interstate 4 last week, the Sheriff's Office said Monday.
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Female Red Wing prison guard accused of sex crimes with two teen boys
Woman allegedly had relationships with two teen boys
By Frederick Melo
Updated: 04/20/2010 12:00:41 PM CDT
She signed her name Peaches and told him she wanted to be the mother of his baby.

It didn't seem to matter to Suzanne Walstrom that she was a 37-year-old correctional officer and the alleged object of her desire was a 17-year-old inmate at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Red Wing.
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Milwaukee County corrections officer held for potential sexual assault of a child
April 8, 6:04 PMMilwaukee City Buzz ExaminerTracey Esser

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, this past Tuesday, a 34-year-old Milwaukee County corrections officer was arrested due to the suspicion of second-degree sexual assault of a child.
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Cops: Fed Jail Guard Was DWI in Wrong-way Parkway Crash

By Timothy Bolger on Apr 19th, 2010

A federal corrections officer from Wheatley Heights was arrested for drunken driving after he drove the wrong way on Wantagh State parkway and crashed head-on into another vehicle early Monday morning, New York State police said.
 

[XLFD]

Stan,
I made a polite request to the warden to get some feedback about the affair. If you have filed several FOIA requests, you should know that such requests are for records that already exist, be they documents, E-mails, recordings, etc. Being that we do not know whether there is any public documentation about the incidents transcribed by inmate Mumaugh, I thought that this was a safer request; after all it is a public facility and operated in the big picture by the taxpayers of this state, which includes me and perhaps you if you still own property here.

Organizations ran in the public sector have a professional obligation to respond to such requests, even without a FOIA kicker. I had not even heard anything bad about the Oaks facility before Masonco started her thread. Since then, I have moved more to the point of believing more in Mumaugh's claims-- Angela, Masonco, and several local figures I trust have convinced me there are problems at Oaks.

I agree with you that Masonco should try to back her statement up with facts, but little else. For all, lets tone down the provocativity, and stick more to the issue and corresponding facts.

Now that my civil inquiry to Oaks has gone over a month without being heeded, I will indeed get out an FOIA request this weekend requesting any and all documents concerning any 2010 complaints lodged by inmate Mumaugh concerning Officer Fink. Thanks for being the burr under my saddle.

[stanstayhi]

Anybody that makes a statement about having a 44 magum ready at any time has a problem. Well Aquaman I really do not know you either but seems you both have had problems before with other posters so I wonder who is the real problem here. You something funny I don't even own a gun! So do you feel threatened with me stating I talk eye to eye? Most men I have met do it that way in fact most prisoners that have any self respect look you straight in the eye when you talk to them.

The both of you seem to have Fink already guilty what ever happened to the law of the land? You are innocence until proving guilty. You have seem to forget that but you do take a letter written to a online newspaper that no one has ever heard of until Masonco found it.

For your information like most of the guys I went to school with we joined the arm forces How about you? Did you ever go fight for your country? I doubt it! Like I have said several times stop watching the movies about prisons try to get a job with us and find the truth out because you pass judgement on something that you really do not know anything about. The only one that seems to think he is god is you but don't worry when the great book is open you can explain your actions then!

[AQUAMAN]

God-complex may be an oversimplification for ya now Stannie. You were right about scumbags at Oakes sounds like, on both sides of the bars, or you wouldn't be so defensive. Noone here passed any judgements, just asked serious questions, & look where that gets us. Funny you're the only person on this thread that knows what happens at Oakes, yet says everyone else knows nothing. Going thru life picking on women and mouthing it does not a real man make in my book, nor anyone else of worth.

[stanstayhi]

So Aquaman since you did made several statements about my life and why I left mason co.... why don't you clue us in what have you done in your life? I know you own guns from your statements of keeping yours ready at all times but have you ever served your country?

You are quick to pass judgment on someone you do not even know and in fact that seems to be a pattern who was that guy you were angry because he locked his profile and you did not like it. No wonder there is only 4 or 5 people posting here.

Ok so no one passed judgement....

"Just looked at it also 3-26-10 8:06 PM. It is still there and it is hard to believe but nowadays nothing suprises me anymore! Give someone a little power and stand back and watch."

"That is why I posted it. The dishonest guards do protect themselves and no one dares speak up."

"Absolute power, corrupts absolutely, an old saying/proverb, true today as it was when first stated. Corruption/atrocities of this sort in our prison system have been going on far into the past, and continue into the present. The system needs overhauling on an ongoing basis. Watchdogs hired to do so are not independent of the MDOC system to start with, therefore, having a direct conflict of interest thruout the entire process. Redford's Brubaker movie was a good example of the industry bringing this to the publics attention in the 70's. It's worth a watch again for those whom forgot it, or for those never seeing it"

Just some examples for you.... ohh the last one was yours... the guy keeping his 44 magum ready to use if need be. I do not need a gun and am not afraid to use my words to push someone back. You seem to try making staments about people that you have no ideal who they are. You take the word of a inmate because when you were a kid you watched prison movies that told you everything and the officer was always the bad guy right?

One last question how old are you?

[XLFD]

The comments Aquaman made are fairly consistent and contain truisms, not value judgments against a class of people with very difficult jobs.

His first states that power has a tendency to corrupt many people. True or false, Stan?

His second states that guards have a tendency to protect their own. Is this even debatable, Stan? You do not even know C.O. Fink, but you seem to somehow know he is being lied about without any facts other than the criminal record of the accuser, and his title.

His third restates the first point, and asserts the point that investigations should be conducted by agencies without a direct conflict of interest with the results of the investigation. Sounds reasonable to me, Stan. Agree?

His reference to Brubaker was very appropo; Brubaker was based on the 1969 book Accomplices To The Crime: The Arkansas Prison Scandal by Tom Murton and Joe Hyams. Murton was a warden at the Tucker and Cummins Prison in Arkansas. The abuses detailed in the film and the discovery of unmarked graves are based on fact. The full wikipedia reference is below.

Aquaman is a class act who makes his decisions based on fact, not by some idiotic notion that all crooks are bad and all cops are good. The facts (see opening thread) obviously contradicts such a naive notion. I could make a similarly impressive list of inmates incarcerated wrongly.

Such naivety makes me wonder how old you are, Stan.

[XLFD]

Stan,
You seem to be the only one convinced about anyone's guilt (MuMaugh) or innocence (Fink), and yet you could very easily illustrate your faith in CO Fink by filing an FOIA request concerning non-exempt information about him, or about MuMaugh. A matter of putting your money where your mouth is. I doubt whether you will though, because to you (from what you've said) this is already an open-and-shut case, precisely the type of administrative attitude which is non-productive in the Department of Corrections. FYI, I give you a link to the Oaks.

[AQUAMAN]

Just another Rodney King type manifestation of no ethics nor morals. The CO's get so entrenched in their day to day duties, with low-lifes, that they soon stoop and become the same themselves after years of exposure. Too bad, they should and could be better, but I doubt it, cause it's a contagious attitude that becomes the accepted norm, and just perpetuates with time. Then spreads to the newbies and others trying to just do a hard job.

[Dave]

I think all we're asking Stan is that you admit that some C/O's can be bad. No one here has tried to imply that every C/O is dirty.. I think the general consensus is that most are decent people and do their jobs as best they can. There is no doubt that Mumaugh is a bad dude... that doesn't mean that he couldn't be telling the truth though. The burden of proof for someone in the prison system I think is much higher being that you have the fact that your in prison going against you. This is kind of the reason why lawyers try not to put convicts or ex cons on the stand in a trial because you know the opposing lawyer is going to try and chip away at their credibility. I think you might get a little bit less hostility directed your way if you can concede the point regarding a few bad C/O's.

[AQUAMAN]

Checkmate Dave and X, thanks for the true support and confidence in fellow posters, not all whackos, some do their homework, right Barry? ummmmmmmStan?

[stanstayhi]

You failed to answer my question around how old are you? So what home work did any of you guys did? I provided most of the information including that on using the freedom of information act. If you guys feel so strongly for this inmate then use the F.O.I. if not then forget I would say you guys don't have the money to put where your mouth is. Several of you have post crap from movies made back in the 60's as fact give me a break so Aquaman when you watch your next T.V. show on the emergency room it does not make you a profession... a M.D.

[XLFD]

Brubaker was a cartoon as compared to what actually happened at the correctional facility that the film is based on. For your reference, Stan, here is an excerpt about the facts behind the film: In the 1960s, Arkansas maintained two large prison "farms," the Tucker State Prison Farm and Cummins State Prison Farm. The farms used over a thousand inmates as forced labor to produce profits which annually "averaged about $1,400,000 over the years.

In 1967, Arkansas inaugurated a new governor to follow Orval Faubus, who had held that office for twelve years (six terms). Governor Winthrop Rockefeller released a report on the state prison system which had been ordered, and then suppressed by Governor Orval Faubus. The 67-page report detailed horrific conditions at the two state penal farms, including endemic sexual assault, electrical torture, flogging, beatings with blackjacks and hoses, extortion of money from other inmates by the armed prisoners who were working as "trustie" guards (due to the absence of a salaried guard force), open marketing of illegal drugs and alcohol, and a host of other malicious and criminal practices. Particularly ironic, as well as harsh, was the poor quality and quantity of food given to the prisoners — on a farm which marketed enough produce and dairy products to produce profits that were averaging $1.4 million (US) in 1960's dollars (more than $10 million (US) in 2008 dollars).

In his own later writings about Tucker, Murton noted the cruelty of the "trusties":

"Discipline was routinely enforced by flogging, beating with clubs, inserting of needles under fingernails, crushing of testicles with pliers, and the last word in torture devices: the 'Tucker telephone,' an instrument used to send an electric current through genitals."

In 1967, along with releasing the Faubus report, Rockefeller sought to reform the system by bringing in Murton, who had made his reputation by helping establish the Alaskan correctional system after that territory achieved statehood in 1959. Murton, then 39 years old, was chosen to be the first professional penologist the state of Arkansas had ever hired as a warden.

In early February 1968, Murton ordered excavations on the grounds of the Cummins prison farm. Three bodies were uncovered before the excavation was halted, although 15 to 25 depressions were clearly visible and Murton's inmate informant told him that as many as 200 bodies had been buried there. Clearly not coincidentally, the number of prisoners listed as "escapees" since 1915 was reported as "more than 200."

According to the informant, Reuben Johnson, most of the men had been killed after refusing extortion demands from the "trustie" guards. Their deaths were either falsely recorded as successful escapes; or recorded as deaths, but under false pretenses. Johnson, a lifer, gave details of murders and burials on the prison grounds dating back for decades, including a mass murder of about 20 inmates around Labor Day of 1940. Johnson was backed up by at least one other inmate, James Wilson. Wilson also asserted that returning escapees were routinely murdered.

FYI, Stan, you seem to be the one who ignores questions and doesn't bother to do their research. A fleeting reference to a film based on a true story seems to really ruffle your feathers. Were all the C.O.s I have at the top of this thread "framed" for doing the things they are accused of? Get real.

I feel sorry for all the inmates who have had to endure you in their cell block, if indeed you have any actual experience as being a CO. After all, we only have your dubious word to go on that you have any sort of experience in the field.

[stanstayhi]

I am sure sorry you are still stuck in the 1960's but you are. Things have changed 100% to what there were and to keep referring to a movie based on a book in the 1960's shows you really do not have any ideal what you are talking about. I feel sorry for you but please do your home work before you talk about corrections because it makes you look bad bad biased.

All I have ever asked here is for one of you to back your statements up with proof but you have none and refuse to do any work to get it. I told you how to get the paperwork, which is what you need but you make excuses why you can't!