MAHONING COUNTY Jail trial centers on safety issues

The defense objects to one 'purported' expert witness.
YOUNGSTOWN -- A class-action federal lawsuit over conditions at the Mahoning County jail goes to trial Monday in U.S. District Court, Akron, with allegations that inmates and guards alike fear for their own safety.
Akron lawyers Robert Armbruster and Thomas Kelley, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of inmates, said a federal court order is needed to remedy the problem caused by understaffing and overcrowding. They say a lack of corrections officers means inmates are locked in their cells, sometimes for two or three days at a time.
The jail population, which hovered around 770 in late October, has since dropped to roughly 680. The jail, designed to hold just under 500 in single cells, has increased its population by double-bunking with cots.
But while the inmate population exceeds the jail's design, the number of guards has not kept pace. And last month Mahoning County Sheriff Randall A. Wellington laid off 31 deputies, blaming the layoff on the failure of a half-cent sales tax last month. He said he will lay off 120 more on Dec. 19, if county commissioners don't impose the tax voters rejected.
The county's lawyers, Daniel T. Downey and Mark Landes, don't disagree that jail populations have swollen over the years while resources have dwindled. But overcrowding, lock-downs and restricted staff are not, in and of themselves, violations of constitutional rights, they said.
"The constitution does not mandate comfortable prisons," Downey and Landes said in their trial brief.
The county contends that jail conditions exceed standards. Inmates' privileges include cable TV, use of washer and dryer, showers, indoor recreation (such as basketball), commissary foods, visitation, self-help programs through Community Corrections Association and access to legal books.
"During times of financial uncertainty, inmates are locked down with greater frequency," the lawyers said. "The administration, however, attempts to rotate lock-downs so that the same pods are not locked down on consecutive days."
U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd said at a pretrial hearing that if the inmate's claims have merit, then he will move to remedy the situation. The judge could establish a staff-to-inmate ratio for the jail, as he did in a similar civil rights lawsuit in the early 1990s; the consent decree was lifted in November 2001.
Conditions inside
For this case, Armbruster and Kelley intend to call several inmates who will testify about the violence, the lock-downs, the stench of backed-up toilets, the lack of programs and the lack of guards.
During lock-downs, inmates can't shower, make phone calls, participate in recreation, see visitors or take classes, such as GED, anger management, alcohol and drug counseling, the lawyers said.
Armbruster and Kelley said both inmates and guards fear for their safety and many acts of violence go unreported because of lack of staff presence or lack of time to fill out reports.
Once inmates are released from lock-downs, they let off steam, get into arguments over the use of phones, what they watch on TV and little things normally taken in stride, the suit claims. They said testimony will show that, for 2003, the jail had a high rate of violence.
Sgt. Candy Guzzy, a veteran corrections supervisor, acknowledged in her pretrial deposition that the staffing level has created an unsafe situation.
She said deputies are called away from their jail posts to pick up men and women arrested on warrants and serve probate court orders, usually for mental patients, whom they take from their homes to a hospital. Other times, deputies take inmates to a hospital for dialysis treatment, which is a minimum of four hours, not counting travel time, and take inmates to eye doctor appointments and so forth.
Guzzy said that when deputies are pulled out of the jail, pods are closed, meaning inmates get locked in their cells. "It's a safety issue," she said in her deposition.
About the tax
Joe Caruso, assistant county administrator, explained to Judge Dowd at a pretrial hearing that the tax can be imposed and collected for one year and not be subject to referendum if the commissioners' vote is unanimous. If the vote is 2-1, then imposition of the tax is subject to referendum, which must be done within 30 days, Caruso said.
If the tax is imposed, collection would be in April and the revenue would not be received until July, he said.
Last month's layoffs of deputies, meanwhile, weren't the first in recent years. Guzzy, in her deposition, was asked about staff shortages from a year ago.
She recalled that when layoffs took place in November 2003, she had safety concerns. The lawsuit was filed in November 2003.
"I was afraid that, because the [jail] population outnumbered the deputies that one of the deputies would get hurt, particularly when people were working doubles," Guzzy said, recalling layoffs from a year ago. "They were tired and they were forced to work doubles ... and we were still shorthanded."
Guzzy, in her deposition, said the jail population has more than doubled over the years -- 300 to 800 -- without any increase in staff. In fact, the staffing is lower now, with fewer deputies in "float" positions who could handle tasks outside the jail when needed, she said.
Limited staff means fewer cell inspections, called shakedowns, for contraband such as shanks [knife-like weapons], Guzzy said.
Guzzy was also asked about the impact of more inmates per pod. "When you're watching 72 inmates, it's a lot harder to keep control of 72 as opposed to 36 inmates," she said.
Robert Knight, health administrator for the jail, said in his deposition that he's had no safety complaints from medical staff.
He did, however, address what he called the "long-standing" sanitation problems with backed-up toilets. He said he has concerns about hepatitis being spread through fecal matter.
Armbruster and Kelley have on their witness list Deputy Joseph Durkin, a former Youngstown firefighter, to question about fire safety at the jail. The lawyers allege that, as a result of "significant" understaffing, emergencies cannot be properly responded to and there is a substantial risk that inmates may not be evacuated in case of fire.