Or at least until, if many reports from guards on the scene commenting anonymously on this newspaper’s web site as well as others, the place has locks that work. Surely, crowded or not, the state’s prison system holding 53,000 inmates (some 1,460 of them at Hays in Trion) has enough cells with working locks to improve “living conditions” sufficiently to just keep the prisoners alive until they can be properly kept where they belong.
Four killings of Hays inmates in two months by other inmates is more than enough to call for more drastic action than appointing a “new” warden who has been there before and had plenty of messy problems with a population out of his control even then. (Rick Jacobs, a Rome native who has become a corrections system troubleshooter, was warden at Hays during the inmate strike there — the nation’s first ever — against poor living conditions.)
Such a suggestion is made reluctantly with full awareness that Hays is one of the few “major industries” and large employers in Chattooga County, employing some 350 staff. Just furlough most of the present staff, at full pay, at least until the locks are fixed and the entire operational system overhauled. This situation is not their fault, after all. And how long would it take in an empty prison to upgrade lockup security to the minimum expected ... a month? Two?
Besides the population not of the “hard case” variety, many of trustee status and out-and-about routinely providing such public services as rural fire protection, need not be relocated. Moreover, keeping inmates making an effort to reform or otherwise serve their time wisely as well as the staff alive should be the greatest concern. It appears only a matter of time before they cross harm’s way ... indeed two guards were stabbed by inmates even during the two months where this outburst of mayhem has entered the news.
IT IS ALSO a question of keeping yet another huge black eye regarding Georgia from achieving national scandal dimensions and possible federal intervention. This situation must be teetering on the brink of this already. The Southern Center for Human Rights has already called for “outside experts” to be called to the scene, reporting that family members of prisoners at Hays have reported that, besides the broken cell doors that allow inmates to roam free day and night in the supposedly maximum-security facility, there are routine stabbings and beatings, a protection racket going on and gangs are in control of the cellblocks, not the guards. (Who, by the way, are unarmed and understaffed.)
One shudders to think what the cost would be to state taxpayers if the U.S. Justice Department orders a massive overhaul of the entire shooting match as it did with the state’s mental hospitals.
Were this some new flareup of trouble that would be one thing, but this is quite another. Hays has a “track record” of problems — not only killings but also escapes, strikes and provocative actions by prison personnel (such as beat-downs of inmates by “flying squads” of corrections personnel that led to lawsuits which the inmates won and received monetary damages for).
There have even been anonymous allegations, by those representing themselves as on the staff, of prison officials warning inmates of a big shakedown coming by outside state personnel (as is done from time to time) and to hide their illegal weapons, drugs and cellphones in return for, if the prison passed inspection, being rewarded with pizza and fried chicken brought in from the outside. That should be taken at rumor/rumor value, of course, but there are literally dozens of similar comments scattered across various web sites.
There is an awful lot of smoke for there not to be any fires ... and such attempts at coverups actually have a long tradition at Hays, some of them brought out in testimony during federal court cases.
THE PLACE has appeared to be out of control or barely in control of prison staff for many, many years now. If this is the state’s “facility of the year,” as recently so-named by the Corrections Department, what the heck are the rest of them like?
It has long been far too easy for prison authorities to duck, bob and weave when such tales are told. Not only are they rulers of all they and only they are permitted to survey, but there is a reason why most state prisons are found in very isolated areas. And no, it has little to do with prisoners having to run a long way before they can get away from pursuing bloodhounds if they manage to scale a wall.
It has everything to do with, as in Chattooga, residents being happy to have a source of any jobs, no matter how dangerous, and any income thus increasing a tendency to turn a blind eye to what the hand that feeds them does ... even when it is balled up into a fist. Additionally, there are also very few snoopy busybodies — such as members of the media — to be found anywhere nearby.
The corrections personnel also have become very good at dodging any questions that do arise — they probably are given classroom training on avoiding relations with the public.
For example, in the most recent killing (of a Hays inmate apparently by another Hays inmate while being transferred to Jackson State Prison for evaluation of mental conditions ... Hays has a lot of prisoners with antisocial personalities) the Chattanooga paper reported all the following factual deflections occurring:
“John Bankhead, Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokesman, declined to say how the inmate died until an autopsy is complete. ...
“Corrections department officials said they were too busy fixing the security problems at Hays to talk with a reporter and declined a request to interview Commissioner Brian Owens about the increased violence at Georgia prisons (saying in an email) ‘Due to our focused efforts, we do not have the resources to set up an interview.’ ...
“Gov. Deal’s office didn’t respond to questions about whether the governor is looking into the increased violence. His office referred all questions to the Department of Corrections.”
GET THE DRIFT? That is not unusual ... that is the norm for pretty much anything having to do with anything unpleasant regarding “corrections.” The same process would be used if one asked how many state prisoners were vegetarians made to eat anything the state wanted to put in front of them.
Frankly, corrections needs a whole lot of correction on how it tells the taxpayers footing the bill about what is going on.
And Hays needs a locksmith permanently on staff as well as somebody brought in from way, way outside Georgia who has successfully run prisons where inmates are not being killed at the rate of one every two weeks.
It also needs for the governor to shut down this “Big House,” as prisons are known in American slang, at least until there is some assurance that it will cease to be a slaughter house.
This started under the Gold Dome with Governor Zell Miller and DOC Commissioner Wayne Garner when they decided to get tough on crime by harsher sentencing and no rehabilitation.
Georgia prisons have never been “club fed” but when you take away everything that will make a better inmate you get the worst type of inmates.
Roy Barnes followed Miller and Garner’s lead and did nothing to improve prisons. The situation worsened.
Sonny Perdue trusted James Donald to make a difference. The best thing Donald did was initiate the Faith and Character Based Program in the institutions. As James Donald is now a member of the parole board I am not sure where his allegiances lie.
The reason Hays State Prison was voted the facility of the year was for their Faith and Character Based Program. It was the best in the state. If the media would take time to investigate the reasons instead of jumping to conclusions they might learn something.
As for the locks at Hays; locks are installed in Georgia prisons by outside contractors. The State of Georgia has paid a tremendous amount of money to have crappy locks installed.
The locks are controlled by computers. Whenever the motherboard at Hays – as well as Phillips State Prison and probably others – gets damp, the locks pop. All staff can do is call the outside contractor who can do nothing. If a corrections employee tries to fix any of the locks the warranty is voided.
Once again, this cannot be blamed on a local warden or staff. This comes from the top.
Will Commissioner Brian Owens do something? Hopefully, his job is also on the line and he will be forced to act.
Nathan Deal inherited the mess that Zell Miller and Wayne Garner started. Will he do something? One would hope so. But, as corrections is not a popular subject with tax payers and does not garner votes, probably not.
As Governor Deal continues to demand tax cuts from all state agencies it seems that eventually the gangs may soon take over the prison system.
Kudos to the Southern Center for Human Rights for pushing this issue. If Georgia does take action it will not be because it is the right thing to do or to protect her citizens. It will be to prevent the federal government from coming in to expose what is really happening in Georgia prisons funded by taxpayer money.
If we are serious about change we have to start under the Gold Dome.
Unfortunately, that can't happen. There are currently not enough beds in the state to split up and house these inmates due to their security level.
Starting under Governor Perdue, a lot of prisons were shut down when James Donald was appointed commissioner. James Donald was an Army General with no experience in Corrections, yet he was put in charge of the Georgia Department of Corrections. He had a lot of ideas that sounded good, in theory, at the time but we are seeing the results 10 years later of what happens when someone with no understanding of correctios is placed in charge. A lot of the problems now started as a result of the changes that "the Czar," James Donald pushed on the legislature, judges, etc. His catch phrase during the day was "Are we locking them up because we are afraid of them, or becasue we are just mad at them?" His position was if we were just mad at them, maybe they shouldn't be in prison afterall. He saw no problem in eliminating a lot of beds, state wide, and restructuring the Department of Corrections so that alternative sentencing programs became the priority. Prehaps these alternative sentencing programs were to high of a priority since the basics, such as locking cells, have been neglected.
Now, it's a sad situation. There are all sorts of expensive alternative sentence options, but the prisons are out of control.
The solution will only begin if, and when, the Governor and other elected officials relaize the importance of cleaning house. Bring in someone from out of state, not to run Hays, but to run the whole department.