By J.D. Prose
Beaver County Times
FAYETTE COUNTY, Pa. — Following a tour of the state prison in Fayette County on Friday, two state lawmakers are promising legislation to improve guard safety and demanding that security concerns be immediately addressed.
“We need to get everybody in a room and discuss these issues,” said state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Greene County. “Morale is bad.”
Snyder and state Rep. Tim Mahoney, D-Fayette County, walked through the state prison for three hours Friday and came away determined to solve the widespread problems guards have been complaining about.
That effort will start Monday when they plan on calling state Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel to schedule a meeting with him and prison Superintendent Jay Lane.
“These issues need to be addressed,” Mahoney said, while Snyder said she wants Wetzel to visit the prison and speak with guards like she and Mahoney did, rather than rely on administration reports.
The legislators were told there have been 19 assaults on guards this year, as well as 41 inmates caught with drugs and seven weapons confiscated.
Both Mahoney and Snyder said they were stunned to learn that not every guard carries pepper spray or a radio, which can allow them summon help and be used as a weapon to fend off an attack.
Many radios are broken and had to be sent out for repairs, but there are no additional ones for guards to use. “Why they don’t have back-up radios is beyond me,” Snyder said.
After their visit, Snyder and Mahoney announced that they would immediately pursue legislation to equip every state prison guard with pepper spray, which only costs about $15 to $20 per can.
“It could possibly help alleviate some of the problems they’ve had with the assaults,” Snyder said.
The bill would mirror a new federal law that was introduced by U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, and U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh County, that requires guards in medium- and high-security federal prisons be issued pepper spray.
“If you got to work and have to fear for your life everyday … somethings not right down there,” Mahoney said. “We’ve just got to get the guards protected.”
In an email, Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association president Jason Bloom said providing pepper spray to guards “is a common sense approach that is long overdue and will help officers improve the safety for everyone in a state prison.”
Last week, the Uniontown Herald-Standard reported on complaints from Bloom about the unsafe work environment guards face on a daily basis at the Luzerne Township prison.
A DOC spokeswoman responded that there is a violence reduction initiative underway by the department and that efforts are being made to improve security at SCI-Fayette.
In the meantime, the lawmakers said there is still a rampant problem with visitors smuggling drugs into the prison. Mahoney said the DOC needs to have a more clear-cut policy on visitors trying to smuggle in drugs and the punishments they face.
Snyder said the state budget impasse also had a significant impact on the prison, which is short-staffed because vacancies have not been filled. “They need to be able to staff these institutions correctly,” she said.
Mahoney said the visit came about after the union met with him and shared their concerns last week. “I couldn’t believe what they were saying,” he said, “but after today I can believe everything that they told me.”
Copyright 2016 the Beaver County Times