JAIL TRIAL Deputy staffing at issue on stand

Some deputies at the jail are unhappy and frightened, a witness testified.
AKRON -- U.S. District Judge David D. Dowd said you don't have to be a Rhodes scholar to figure out that when inmates share a jail cell during prolonged lockdowns, there are bound to be problems.
The judge made that observation Monday as a class-action lawsuit over conditions at the Mahoning County jail got under way in federal court. Testimony centered on what the staffing should be to ensure the safety of guards and inmates.
The trial could last all week.
Akron lawyers Robert Armbruster and Thomas Kelley, who filed the lawsuit in November 2003 on behalf of inmates, called to the witness stand three experts who have analyzed the jail staffing and sheriff's Capt. James M. Lewandowski, former warden.
Lewandowski said the jail, which opened in 1996, was supposed to have 151 corrections officers. The number reflects all shifts and allows for coverage of vacations and sick days.
In 1996 and continuing until November 2001, the jail was under a federal consent decree that enforced an inmate-to-staff ratio. That decree was the result of a lawsuit Armbruster and Kelley won in the early 1990s.
Outside duties
Lewandowski said when the jail opened, the guards did not have duties outside the facility.
Testimony could come as early as today from a jail supervisor who, in a pretrial deposition, said deputies are pulled out of the jail for other assignments.
Mahoning County is being defended by Columbus lawyers Daniel T. Downey and Mark Landes. They acknowledge that many inmates are double bunked and inmates are locked-down when required to protect their safety and the safety of the guards.
Overcrowding and restricted staff are not, in and of themselves, violations of constitutional rights, the defense lawyers said.
The understaffing is due, in part, to the failure of a half-cent sales tax. Sheriff Randall A. Wellington laid off 31 deputies last month and plans to lay off 120 more Sunday.
Downey and Landes, meanwhile, objected to the use of Lois Ventura, Ph.D., an assistant criminology professor at Toledo University and former director of inmate services for the Lucas County jail, as an expert witness saying she knew only about inmate services and not about security.
Judge Dowd said that because there's no jury, he would hear her testimony.
"Everything you do, you do with security in mind," Ventura testified.
Her analysis of the jail for 2003: Unsafe for inmates and staff -- an extraordinary high risk of danger.
Lockdowns
For 2004, "It continues to be unsafe and, in some cases, worse," she testified.
She pointed to the number of days when inmates are locked down, unable to leave their cells because of a shortage of guards. She said it's not uncommon for inmates to be locked down three or four days a week.
Ventura said the increase in the number of inmates over the past few years -- from 500 to nearly 800 -- also creates a high risk of danger with so few deputies to guard them.
The jail, designed to hold around 500 inmates, added cots and expanded its population in the past year or so to nearly 800. It recently dropped to about 700.
Using Mahoning County Sheriff's Department records for November 2003, Ventura said she discovered that the number of deputies who reported to work was substantially below the number of posts assigned. She compared her figures with those compiled by Licking County Sheriff Gerry Billy, another expert witness
Billy, who also testified Monday, said there should be 32 corrections officers on the day shift, 30 on the afternoon and 22 on the midnight shift. Ventura said the average for November 2003 was 18 guards on the day shift, 21 on the afternoon shift and 12 on the midnight shift.
Ventura said she found deputies' notes on the records that called staffing levels "unsafe" and "dangerously low."
Morale
Another expert witness, Robert Pace, a former jail administrator in Cuyahoga County, said he was contacted by Deputy Glen Kountz, president of the union representing deputies, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 141, to do a staffing analysis. Pace's report was filed in May 2004.
Pace is a consultant to the Geauga County Safety Center and owns his own consulting company, Managed Confinement.
He said the three main concerns for a jail are occupants' safety, security and operational matters. The latter he called "making sure the trains run on time."
Under questioning by Armbruster, Pace gave a description of the Mahoning County jail inmates' emotional state because of lockdowns. He said they feel stress, anxiety and anger. Being confined for so long -- three to four days a week -- leaves them without access to the day area, which includes phones and showers.
He said the frequency of inoperable toilets just adds to their distress.
Pace said reduced supervision, often due to deputies not showing up for work, means fewer "shake-down" periods when cells are searched for contraband. Vulnerable areas of the jail are not getting security checks, either, he said.
When asked about deputies' morale, Pace said many told him in confidence that they're unhappy, anxious and frightened. Some are looking for other employment.
He said some said they hate the job they once loved and call in sick when they're not. He said they call the time off a "mental health day."
Pace, who also reviewed jail records, said deputies are pulled out of the jail to perform other duties, such as serving warrants and transporting inmates to doctors' appointments. With them gone, more lock-downs occur.
Pace said his review of the jail operation also uncovered two-way walkie-talkies, touch screens (that activate electronic doors) and fire panels that didn't work. He also said training is inconsistent at best because there is not sufficient staffing to relieve guards from their posts to attend training.