By Keith Gushard,
The Meadville Tribune (Pennsylvania)
MEADVILLE — Crawford County Prison Board may act as soon as next month whether to go forward with an independent review of county jail operations by an agency of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
At Thursday’s prison board meeting, Francis Weiderspahn Jr., chairman of Crawford County Board of Commissioners, said he had preliminary email contact Tuesday with the National Institute of Corrections for a possible review of county jail operations.
The National Institute of Corrections, an agency within the Federal Bureau of Prisons, has no official jurisdiction over county jails, so its investigators only make recommendations, not mandates.
“It looks like the process is we have to write a letter asking for their assistance and spell out what areas we think we need them to take a look at,” Weiderspahn said. “From what I’ve seen so far, there’d be no cost to the county.”
All three county commissioners — Weiderspahn, Jack Lynch and C. Sherman Allen have voiced support for an independent review. The trio also serve on the seven-member Crawford County Prison Board which sets policy for county jail operations. Other seats on the jail board, mandated by state law, are a county judge, district attorney, sheriff and county treasurer.
“It never hurts to take a look at what you’re doing,” Lynch said at Thursday’s prison board meeting.
Lynch said he has been trying to make contact with Barry Grossman, Erie County’s chief executive, about a similar probe in that county. Grossman has asked the NIC to review of Erie County Prison operations in the wake of several incidents at that prison this year. Since January, two former Erie County Prison guards were sentenced for orchestrating an inmate’s beating, while other Erie County Prison guards have been disciplined or charged for allegedly fudging timecards and stealing ammunition.
Judge John Spataro of Crawford County Common Pleas Court, who serves on the Crawford County Prison Board, asked for more information.
The Crawford County Prison Board agreed Thursday to have the matter come before the board at its January meeting.
The other members of the prison board are District Attorney Francis Schultz, Sheriff Nick Hoke and County Treasurer Christine Krzysiak.
Both Schultz, who serves as prison board chairman, and Hoke, who serves as vice chairman, were absent from Thursday’s meeting. Schultz was attending a meeting in Harrisburg while Hoke is on medical leave.
Earlier this month, Weiderspahn said he’d support an independent probe of the county jail — whether that request was made by county commissioners or the full Crawford County Prison Board.
At the Dec. 6, county commissioners meeting, Sam Byrd, a Meadville resident who has often voiced concerns regarding local prisoner rights, requested county commissioners have the National Institute of Corrections review county jail operations.
In October 2009, the Crawford County Prison Board, which included the previous board of commissioners, had an internal investigations of allegations of mistreatment at the Crawford County jail and those investigations determined all allegations were unfounded.
The prison board also has noted the county jail has had five consecutive perfect scores following inspections by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. The latest state inspection was this spring. Those inspections include review of records and interviews with both inmates and staff members.
But, the Crawford County jail has had the death of a corrections officer in 2010; a federal lawsuit filed against the county by the family of an inmate who died at the jail in 2008; and Nov. 15, another former inmate alleged to commissioners she was mistreated while an inmate at the jail earlier this year, though no lawsuit has been filed.
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