U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement -- a Homeland Security agency -- operates the jail. Officials of the immigration agency decline to say how widespread the problems were at Batavia or what is being done to correct them.
By Dan Herbeck
The Buffalo News
BATAVIA, N.Y. — Many of the nation’s jails and prisons are full of drug offenders.
But at the federal government’s jail in Batavia, some of the drug offenders were employees and supervisors.
Earlier this month, three former employees of the Buffalo Federal Detention Center pleaded guilty to stealing prescription drugs that were meant for prisoners.
But the wrongdoing at the detention center, a facility that is run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, went far beyond the three employees who took plea deals, according to court papers.
A captain who was in charge of health services for the jail, a doctor who served as the facility’s clinical director, a lieutenant and at least two other jail “commanders” are also alleged to have received stolen drugs, according to documents filed by federal prosecutors.
In the most bizarre aspect to the investigation, it appears that some of the stolen drugs might have ended up in the belly of a jail pharmacist’s pet dog.
Prosecutors said a witness told them that Richard Lawson, a captain and pharmacist who took a plea deal, took expired “psychotropic and pain” drugs to his home and left them in a box in his garage.
The witness said Lawson told her that the drugs were destroyed when his dog chewed up the box and the medications.
Lawson also said that he took inhalers from the jail to his home, burning them in a rubbish fire, and that he once stole vitamins and hypodermic needles to treat his dog for exposure to rat poison, the same witness alleged.
“Clearly, there was a problem in the pharmacy out there,” James P. Kennedy, criminal prosecutions chief for the U.S. attorney’s office, said in an interview. “The investigation is continuing, and we will prosecute if there are others who were criminally culpable.”
‘Ongoing investigation’
Court documents show that Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office has been investigating the Batavia jail pharmacy for 20 months, dating from May 2007.
The $25 million facility has been untainted by public scandal since it was opened in March 1998 as a holding center for more than 500 federal prisoners. Some of the prisoners are detained while facing federal criminal charges; others are alleged illegal aliens who face immigration proceedings.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement -- a Homeland Security agency -- operates the jail. Officials of the immigration agency decline to say how widespread the problems were at Batavia or what is being done to correct them.
The immigration agency has declined to discuss whether any of the jail supervisors who were implicated for allegedly receiving stolen drugs have been reassigned or disciplined.
“Since this is an ongoing investigation and still being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney, . . . we are not at liberty to discuss the case further,” said Michael W. Gilhooly, Northeast regional communications director for the immigration agency. “I’d have to refer you to the U.S. attorney’s office.”
Kennedy said the investigation is continuing, adding that other people could be charged. But when asked whether the criminal case has prompted any personnel changes or improvements in jail procedures, he referred a reporter back to officials of the immigration agency.
Gilhooly said he could not comment on whether the immigration agency has taken any steps to address the problems.
The federal jail has an annual budget of $21 million. About 130 employees of the immigration agency and 200 contract employees work in the facility, Gilhooly said.
Three former workers took misdemeanor plea deals Jan. 6, pleading guilty to theft of government property. They await sentencing, which, under federal law, can be no more than a year in prison.
The three are Lawson, identified by authorities as a former captain and pharmacist at the jail; Lisa Schwab, a former pharmacist technician; and Leonard Iannello, a former “contract guard” at the facility.
Court papers include statements from the case agent, Richard N. Ford of Homeland Security’s inspector general’s office, and two witnesses. Ford reports that he was assigned in May 2007 to investigate allegations that inmates’ drugs were being diverted to employees.
Among the drugs that were allegedly stolen from the prisoner pharmacy were:
* Fiorcet, a nonnarcotic prescription painkiller.
* Ibuprofin, a commonly used nonprescription pain medication.
* Cephalexin, an antibiotic.
* Sudafed, a commonly used decongestant.
* Unnamed “psychotropic” medications -- which can affect mood and mental status -- as well as “pain” medications and an unidentified medication used to treat diabetes.
Witnesses said the drugs were routinely given, without prescriptions, to various employees, guards and commanders at the jail for up to three years. Authorities said that some who received the drugs were members of a federal agency, the U.S. Public Health Service’s Commissioned Corps, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
A witness told Ford that a lieutenant at the jail, who has not been charged so far, received Fiorcet pills “almost daily for two to three years.”
Authorities have not disclosed the cost of the stolen drugs, except to say that it is more than $1,000.
“As far as we can determine, the drugs involved were not controlled substances, but were prescription medicines,” Kennedy said. “If they were controlled substances or narcotics, we would have looked at more serious charges [than misdemeanors.]”
Kennedy said he knows that Lawson, Schwab and Iannello no longer work at the detention center but does not know whether anyone else who allegedly got stolen drugs still works there.
Attica attorney Norman P. Effman, vice president of the State Defenders Association, said prisoners with medical problems often complain about problems in getting medications, but he said he is not familiar with any specific complaints about the Batavia facility.
A continuing problem
Effman said that it is disturbing to hear that medications that were bought by taxpayers to treat prisoners were being given to jail staff members.
“With the budgetary problems that jails and prisons have, it’s often very difficult for prisoners to get the meds they need,” Effman said. “Often, the jails give them less costly meds than the ones they really need.”
Such situations are a continuing problem, Effman said. He added that he would not be surprised to hear about wrongdoing at any jail or prison.
“This does not surprise me,” Effman said. “If there’s money to be made, the fact that someone’s wearing a badge doesn’t seem to matter.”
Copyright 2009 The Buffalo News