By Beth Defalco, The Associated Press
PHOENIX (AP) -- A crisis of some kind at a corrections facility was inevitable given “years worth of bad decisions” at all levels of Arizona’s prison system, according to a panel that investigated a 15-day prison hostage situation.
The panel appointed by Gov. Janet Napolitano concluded long-term problems contributed to the standoff at the Arizona State Prison Complex-Lewis.
“The findings of this committee, to say the least, are disturbing,” Herb Guenther, one of the panel’s co-chairman, said Thursday. “This is a monster that is awry right now. It will be a monumental task to turn this agency around.”
The panel was one facet of ongoing investigations into how two inmates were able to overpower two guards on Jan. 18 and hold them hostage in the tower at the prison in Buckeye, about 50 miles southwest of Phoenix.
One hostage, Jason Auch, was released Jan. 24. The other, a female guard who said she was raped, was released Feb. 1, the day inmates Ricky Wassenaar and Steven Coy surrendered. Wassenaar has said the standoff was the result of a failed escape attempt.
The panel pointed to numerous administrative errors throughout the department in the months and years preceding the hostage situation. Specifically, it noted that in 2000 the department discontinued using operational audits of prison facilities.
It also recommended that Corrections Director Dora Schriro “utilize all available information to determine what, if any, disciplinary action or change of assignment is appropriate for those staff involved.”
The Lewis prison’s warden, William Gaspar, was demoted and eight other senior-level supervisors reassigned. According to a letter from Schriro to Napolitano Chief of Staff Dennis Burke, another of the panel’s co-chairmen, all nine may face further disciplinary action and possible termination.
In its review, the panel pointed to “a rich combination” of problems: complacency, inexperience, lack of professionalism, inadequate staffing, vague security procedures, noncompetitive pay and bad architectural design, among other issues.
More specifically, the panel found that one problem leading to the standoff was the lack of staff in the kitchen, where the incident began. There was only one officer for 19 inmates. It also determined that of the 800-plus officers at the prison, half have two years or less of service.
At the time of the hostage situation, 14 of the 20 officers on duty had less than one year of experience.
“Many things went wrong,” the panel said. “Some spontaneous and isolated, others the result of long-term institutional neglect and decay.”
The panel made several recommendations to correct problems, including:
-- More officer training, including undergoing the same certification as police.
-- Allowing officers posted in watch towers to carry side arms, or abandoning the use of a tower for security purposes altogether. Auch made a similar recommendation about side arms when testifying before the panel last week.
-- Higher resolution security cameras.
-- Enhancing, overhauling or replacing the current inmate classification and segregation system.
-- Eliminating a corrections policy of not negotiating with hostage takers. The panel said that negotiations in this case were a practical necessity.
The panel highlighted the fact that there were no established procedures for identifying officers entering the tower and that the tower was used for things it wasn’t intended for, such as dispensing medication to inmates.
“We found the training of officers in this incident was lacking across the board,” said Grant Woods, a former state attorney general and co-chairman of the investigative panel. “I think they were guessing on how to respond.”
Other problems the panel addressed included retaining officers already trained at the state’s expense.
For example, the commission found that after being trained at a cost to Arizona taxpayers, half of a recent Arizona recruit class left to work for the state of Nevada. Nevada, which stationed recruiters at a gas station near a training facility in Tucson, lured the recruits away with higher salaries.
Panel members pointed out that most sergeants are paid less than the officers they supervise.
In response to the report, Schriro said she will confer with the governor and her staff to “implement a full course of correction.”