Va. class is largest in decade; instructors had no intention of easing the recruits into their new careers
By DAVID MACAULAY
Daily Press
What advice would you give to someone wanting
to pursue a career in corrections?
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The recruits who are expected to help deal with overcrowding at the Newport News City Jail weren’t introduced to their new careers gently. There was no coffee or cozy chat with human resources.
Instead, at 8 a.m. Thursday, they were led to a drill hall and made to do jumping jacks and push-ups, and to lie on their backs with their legs in the air, amid a constant barrage of shouting from instructors at the Hampton Roads Criminal Justice Training Academy.
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The Newport News Sheriff’s Office had 28 men and women starting a 10-week course at the academy, the largest class in a decade.
The recruits will help staff a new 105-bed annex that will open in the fall to ease chronic overcrowding at the jail.
But the instructors had no intention of easing the recruits into their new careers.
In all, the 54 recruits who started the training course represent six agencies. They were all subjected to an intensive exercise regime designed to prepare them for the job ahead.
“They want you out of shape,” lead instructor Jonathan Woodruff warned the recruits about the inmates they would be guarding.
“If you come here all out of shape ... you want to cry blues about what’s happening to you ... you are in the wrong place. We don’t feel sorry for you. It’s our job to motivate you, it’s our job to keep you up to par so as you can go back to your department where you can work, where you can survive.
“I hope you didn’t take this job for the paycheck because you are in the wrong job.”
The workout was too much Thursday for one recruit, who collapsed and was taken outside to receive medical attention. He returned to the class later.
Newport News needs its extra personnel to staff the new annex, being built in a former juvenile detention center on 25th Street behind the jail. The annex is likely to open in September or October.
“Hats off to our recruitment people. Most classes are five, eight people,” sheriff’s Lt. Kathleen Carey said.
“We had to have full staffing to operate both the jail and the annex. This is a 10-week course, so they’ll be graduating October 2. We had to get new recruits hired and into the academy in time to graduate,” Carey said.
Carey said the city helped finance 16 posts. “The bulk of salaries are paid by the state, and the city picks up the supplement. We missed the state’s deadline. We are covered because the city is helping us and will be reimbursed at a later date,” she said. “The city has been understanding, knowing the overcrowding issues.”
Newport News has provided $259,712 to pay the salaries of 16 deputies from July 1 to Oct. 31, Carey said. After that, the state will pay the bulk of the annual salaries, leaving the city to pick up $2,736 of a deputy’s $30,970 starting salary.
Originally designed to hold 248 inmates, the Newport News jail is the most crowded in Hampton Roads and has held as many as 700 at one time.
“Last year, we averaged 685 a day,” Carey said. “Having 105 moved to another facility makes a difference. We are expecting tensions to be lower at the annex.”
And unlike the existing jail, the new building has windows, giving it natural lighting. “It will be good for the deputies and for inmates,” she said.
The new annex will also be used for rehabilitative programs, giving inmates more activities, Carey said.
Tensions boiled over at the jail May 6, when Darrell Ray West Jr. - a mentally disturbed inmate - attacked two deputies.
Cpl. Brian Dodge was left blinded in his left eye, and the left side of his face had to be reconstructed after he was punched by West.
Carey said Dodge could no longer work as a deputy. “We have him in a civilian position at the jail in the procurement department, but he has lost his deputy status, which means he has lost his ability to do overtime.”
The incident illustrates the need for deputies to be constantly vigilant, Carey said.
“Tensions rise. You never know what’s coming. You have to be diligent all the time,” she said. “That’s one of the things they will concentrate on at the academy.”
The recruits seemed unfazed by the vigorous introduction to the academy.
J.T. Smith, 38, said he was confident of graduating and being able to deal with violent inmates. “It’s a tough job, but I have a whole bunch of family in law enforcement,” he said.
“These people who are aggressive people were on the street at one time. There are aggressive people on the street, too. It’s a community ... just like the people outside the jail.”
P.J. Handwerk, 50, one of the oldest new recruits, was also hoping to make it through the course.
“They tell me after the day’s over, I’ll feel great,” she said. “As long as they say keep going, I’ll keep going. If I have any regrets, I’m not going to admit to them.”
Handwerk, who previously ran an auto parts store, said she wasn’t put off by the prospect of dealing with inmates: “I’ve had a few customers who were pretty obscene.”
The academy
The Hampton Roads Criminal Justice Training Academy is on Middle Ground Boulevard in the Oyster Point area of Newport News. It provides criminal justice training and related services to 46 partner organizations involved in law enforcement in southern Virginia. The academy began as the Thomas Nelson Academy of Criminal Justice in 1972. It has had a number of name changes and relocations before moving to a new site in Newport News in 2000 and given its present name.
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