By C1 Staff
Colo. — A retired corrections officer is speaking out following last week’s brutal attack on two corrections officers that left one of them dead, in hopes to bring understaffing issues to light.
David Roberts, a 22-year veteran of the corrections profession, wanted to express concerns about an influx of administratively segregated inmates being sent to Arkansas Valley Correctional Facility, according to News 5. One of those inmates was Miguel Alonso Contreras-Perez, who is accused in the brutal attack that killed Sergeant Mary Ricard and seriously injured Sergeant Lori Gann.
“The main reason an inmate is put in Ad-Sec is institutional behavior, be it assaults, gang, or whatever,” he said. “Ark Valley got a big influx of those inmates; the problem being Ark Valley was designed and built as a medium security facility.”
Roberts worked at Ark Valley for over a decade, having only recently retired this summer. He added that the real problem was that staffing wasn’t increased to deal with this influx of dangerous inmates.
“I know staff that are still working at Ark Valley I’ve talked to; they work in constant fear now.”
But Governor John Hickenlooper believes that the facility is not understaffed. He did say that the staffing would be examined after this most recent incident.