JEROME L. SHERMAN, PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE
Copyright 2006 P.G. Publishing Co.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For the second time in two years, a grand jury investigation has snared correctional officers at the Allegheny County Jail.
Eight people, including four guards, were arrested last week after a grand jury handed down presentments detailing how some staff members regularly brought packages of drugs, ranging from tobacco to heroin, to inmates.
The four guards charged in the smuggling, who are now on suspension without pay, were veterans with more than five years of experience, putting them at the top pay grade of $43,700 a year.
Chuck Mandarino, president of the Allegheny County Independent Prison Employees Union, said he had been concerned about hiring practices since the administration of former Warden Calvin Lightfoot started accepting lower test scores from job applicants.
Mr. Lightfoot, who couldn’t be reached for comment, was warden during another incident which highlighted drug problems at the jail.
In 2000, an inmate, John R. King Jr., died in his cell after injecting himself with a substance he thought was heroin.
After Mr. King’s death, lawyer Charles E. Evans conducted an open inquest for the coroner’s office. His report described contraband in the jail as pervasive and recommended the frequent use of drug-sniffing dogs as a deterrent.
Jail officials didn’t follow the suggestion, although Mr. Lightfoot eventually instituted tighter search procedures at the jail’s employee entrance. He also worked with county police to arrest two guards accused of smuggling drugs.
In June 2003, according to court documents, law enforcement officials searched an inmate who was returning from a preliminary hearing. They found drugs hidden in a sock. The inmate agreed to become an informant for detectives with the office of Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.
A county grand jury started investigating drug smuggling at the jail and soon discovered another problem, widespread instances of guards trading favors for sex with female inmates.
The grand jury decided to focus on sexual misconduct before its term expired in 2004. Fifteen people were arrested in that case. Seven have been convicted, three are awaiting trial, and five have been acquitted, including former guard Robert L. Virgili Jr., who now faces charges in connection with the smuggling.
Mr. Lightfoot told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2004 that he had been investigating sexual misconduct before the district attorney’s office became involved.
“They tried to make this look like they did this and I wasn’t there,” he said.
Yet as soon as he took office in January 2004, county Chief Executive Dan Onorato fired Mr. Lightfoot, along with more than a dozen other top county officials.
Fredric Rosemeyer, a former superintendent of the State Correctional Institution Laurel Highlands in Somerset County, served as acting warden at the county jail for 10 months after Mr. Lightfoot left.
In his first month, he brought a team of 23 drug-sniffing dogs to scour the institution.
“We went in there and tore the whole place apart,” he said. But jail officials didn’t find anything substantial.
In October 2004, Mr. Onorato chose Ramon Rustin, deputy warden of security at the Chester County Prison in Eastern Pennsylvania, to come to Allegheny County as warden.
After last week’s arrests, Mr. Rustin is considering buying two ion scanners, expensive electronic drug detection devices. Anyone who enters the jail would have to pass through the scanners, the warden said.
County jail officials already had plans to expand the number of surveillance cameras at the county jail from about 100 to 250, at a cost of $367,000.
Today, Mr. Rustin will travel to Longmont, Colo., for a seminar with wardens from other large jails around the country. The event is sponsored by the National Institute of Corrections, part of the U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Rustin hopes to discuss methods of combating drug smuggling with federal officials.
“It’s a national problem,” he said.
He, Mr. Rosemeyer and Mr. Mandarino agreed that, ideally, the jail would have more than one guard for each pod, or living area. At the end of last week, there were 2,491 inmates in the jail, an average of about 70 per pod, meaning inmates inevitably are out of a guard’s sight for periods of time. Some maximum security pods have two guards.
The building’s structure, 16 stories and almost 1 million square feet, presents challenges. The inmates usually are confined to their pods, which have small recreation areas.
The warden said he and his deputies tried to make frequent inspections, but, because of the jail’s size, he can go weeks without seeing some staff members.
He and Mr. Mandarino expressed doubts about some of the information in the grand jury presentments, which acknowledge “credibility issues” with the testimony of inmates.
The warden also worried that, in the future, inmates might make claims about drug smuggling to cause trouble for guards.
But he still plans to undertake a significant examination of practices and procedures among his staff.
“The majority of the officers here are good officers,” he said. “But for this to happen, there has to be a level of comfort that they can get away with this kind of stuff. That has to change.”
Jerome L. Sherman can be reached at jsherman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1183.
January 23, 2006